Determinants for the adoption of residential rainwater harvesting systems on the slopes of Mt. Elgon, East-Africa. How do they perform?

Abstract

In recent years, the mountainous regions are becoming more susceptible to devastating climatic shocks causing food insecurity and environmental degradation. In response, farmers with small landholding are gaining interest in deploying Residential Rainwater Harvesting Systems (RRWHS) to improve water supplies in homes, though diminutive consideration has been given to the performance evaluation of these systems in a mountainous landscape in the tropics. Our study intended to explicitly understand the determinants for the household adoption of RRWHS and evaluate their performance to improve domestic water supplies in the study area. The study took a cross-sectional design were 444 respondents were selected using a cluster sampling method, and administered with semi-structured questionnaires. The indicators used to assess system performances were: reliability, cost-effectiveness and efficiency. The results of this study showed that system/component price-subsidies, household income-status, landholding-size, availability of technical support and farmer education-level were the most significant determinants for the uptake of RRWHS (P < = 0.05). Performance-wise, the most reliable systems were corrugated metallic-tanks and concrete-ferro-cement tanks. The most cost-effective system was plastic jerrycans; while the most-efficient were concrete ferro-cement and plastic tanks. This study reveals that tax exemptions on the manufacture and importation of RRWHS components can increase their acquisition. The high-capacity storage RRWHS systems are preferred by the farmers due to improved water supplies to sustain domestic usage and farming requirements but also safeguard the environment from surface run-off and overexploitation. Plastic-storage facilities are preferred, because they did not react with water compared to metallic systems.