Rainwater Harvesting Technologies in Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

Rainwater harvesting has been in existence for many years and has positively impacted life, agriculture and economy. Despite these known benefits of rainwater harvesting, Makueni County’s population is slowly adopting rainwater harvesting technologies. Water scarcity still remains a major constraint to life and economic development in the County. The aim of this paper is to evaluate rainwater harvesting technologies and the factors contributing to adoption of the technologies in the ASAL areas with Makueni County being the case study. The study was conducted in Wanzauni and Itetani locations in Tulimani division, Mbooni West district, Makueni County within Kenya’s Eastern Region which lies within the arid and semi arid ecological zones of Kenya. A total of 160 household questionnaires were administered, focus group discussions and key informants interviews done during data collection exercise. The data was analyzed using Statistical package for social scientists (SPSS). Various rainwater harvesting technologies (RWHTs) are used within Makueni County including macro-catchment (earth dams, sand/sub-surface dams), micro-catchment (Zai pits, strip catchment, tillage, contour and semi-circular bunds) and rooftop rainwater harvesting technologies with rooftop catchment being the most commonly used technique. However, adoption of these RWHTs in Makueni County is slow irrespective of their potential to improve livelihoods. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to predict factors affecting adoption of RWHTs within 160 households in Makueni County. Some of the factors found to have statistically-significant positive effect on the adoption of RWHT are gender, literacy levels, social and economic status and technological know-how on RWHT. Ways of promoting the adoption of RWHTs such as capacity building and training, poverty alleviation through enhancement of income generation activities, enhanced formation of community groups aimed at water development activities, and improved designs incorporating mechanized technologies in favour of women and children, are recommended.