Abstract
Water governance regimes have a profound effect on vegetation and soil attributes. This is because they directly impact on grazing patterns. Kenyan peri-urban drylands are grappling with climate change and variability, population spill-over from neighboring towns and cities and land degradation that put strain on water resources. Water demand therefore outstrips supply. Sustainable water governance regimes are therefore a prerequisite for climate change resilience, building of adaptive capacities and reduction of climate induced vulnerabilities. This study sought to evaluate the impact of various water regimes on vegetation and soil attributes. Organizational and operational characteristics of diverse water governance regimes were studied and measured against respective vegetation and soil physio-chemical attributes. Soil and vegetation data was analyzed using one-way ANOVA on GenStat 15th edition. The study revealed a shifting trend from traditional water resource management institutions to more formalized regimes. Both public and private water governance regimes and systems existed though most of these lacked proper documentation and clearly defined terms of engagement among relevant actors. These systems applied diverse water management approaches creating significance differences in plant species diversity (p<0.05, F=0.565), richness (p<0.05, F=14.717), soil organic carbon (p<0.001, F=10.67), pH (p<0.05, F=4.84) and particle size distribution (p<0.05, F=5.72) because of varying extents of range access and use. This study concluded that there is need for integrating indigenous knowledge into modern water governance approaches for sustainable crop and livestock production systems. Both national and devolved governance structures should therefore invest in awareness and capacity building to enhance knowledge and skill transfer that would spur development of ecologically, socially and economically responsive systems aimed at augmenting climate resilience of current and emerging production systems and livelihoods.
Highlights
African ecosystems will experience a drastic shift under future climate
Water governance regimes observed under this study were categorized into four, according to how they were managed; those watering points under direct jurisdiction of Water Resource Users Associations (WRUAs) which are the custodians of water catchments under law those watering points that are managed by the Water Service Providers (WSBs) which are legally mandated to supply water and provide sanitation services, Public watering points owned by the Ministry of Water and managed by local community Water Management Committees (WMCs) and privately owned watering points including private boreholes, dams and watering troughs located in people’s private homes and ranches
Water Resource Users’ Associations are community based entities tasked with catchment conservation, settling disputes arising from water rights, access and use, among other functions at the local level [8, 9, 13]
Summary
African ecosystems will experience a drastic shift under future climate. Ecosystem functions may not adequately support traditional rural livelihood pathways such as pastoralism and rain-fed crop production [1, 2]. Climate change is projected to alter the scope of survival for most plant species since there will be major changes in plant growth, survival, reproduction and distribution [3]. Rising temperatures in the country, and by extension East Africa, will limit the number of plant species available. These challenges are more complex in peri-urban drylands like Kajiado County, where anthropogenic drivers of plant community alterations are immense. Land use changes including expansion of agriculture and increase in more sedentary lifestyles as land acreage available per capita to support traditional mobile livestock production systems
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