Water Harvesting Brings New Hope

26 March 2010
Nairobi — Farmers in the dry parts of Kenya are not about to let water from the current heavy
rains go to waste.
In Laikipia West District, like in many other dry parts of the country, the rains set in early and
residents are ahead of the game when it comes to water harvesting.
Mr Stephen Kamunya, a farmer, has built a pond that holds 50,000 litres of water. The pond is
lined with thick plastic sheets to prevent seepage. It is also roofed with iron sheets to prevent
contamination and loss through evaporation.
Water from higher ground as well as that from gutters on the pond's roof is harvested. Mr
Kamunya says his pond is now full after recent heavy rains, especially over the past month.
This has enabled him to increase the area under crop production.
A 50,000-litre pond like Mr Kamunya's costs about Sh120,000 to build.
With the support of Kenya Rainwater Association, 24 such ponds have been constructed in
Laikipia West. More are being built.
The association, which assists Kenyans to harvest rain water, has made remarkable progress in
introducing the concept in dry districts.
It works in partnership with a number of organisations like the European Union.
In Kenya, each person can, on average, store 5,300 litres of water, the lowest capacity in the
world.
In the US, each person can store up to 6 million litres while in South Africa, a person can store
up to 750,000 litres.
In neighbouring Ethiopia, a country with a similar climate to Kenya, each person can store
150,000 litres of water.
It is because of this limited water storage capacity that the country's development blueprint,
Vision 2030, has a goal of tripling the per capita water storage capacity to 16,000 litres by 2012.
The Nairobi-based Kenya Rainwater Association, a member of the Greater Horn of Africa
Rainwater Partnership, says the government is involved in water harvesting in a number of ways.
Association chairman David Mburu says rainwater harvesting is taking place in many parts of
Kenya but the impact is not apparent because demand is high.
Dr Mburu said his association is working with the Water Ministry to construct water harvesting
dams and pans in Narok North, Trans Mara, Baringo, Koibatek, and Chuka in Meru.
"We work with Water Ministry officers in the field. They survey, design, and supervise
construction," he said.
The government is also independently building five large dams in a programme running until
July, 2012.
"After completion, the country will have secured an additional 21 billion litres of water storage
capacity," said ministry official Robinson Gaita.
Mr Gaita said a total water storage capacity of 2.4 billion litres has been created across the
country under the Kazi kwa Vijana programme.
Every year, 1,500 cubic kilometres of waste water is produced globally.

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Policy advocacy to promote rainwater harvesting

Expensive conventional options to water supply usually fail to function as expected a few
months or years after construction. Dams are rendered ineffective due to siltation resulting from
heavy erosion of agricultural lands, while borehole pumps break down and often cannot be
repaired or lack of spare parts or become useless because of lower water tables resulting from
over exploitation of groundwater. It is well established that centralized water supply systems in
rural Africa fail.
Rainwater harvesting systems on the other hand are cheaper, decentralized and participatory and
benefit communities in rural and urban areas. Besides the physical water supply structures, there
are policy gaps in addressing water-related diseases. An over-emphasis on treatment while
neglecting water and sanitation – which cause the diseases – and misplaced faith in the private
sector’s role in supplying water to poor communities have all contributed to the worsening water
crises in Africa.
Rainwater harvesting technologies and approaches
In line with its goal of improving the livelihoods of small-scale land users, RELMA was
involved in the search for appropriate and affordable technologies for rainwater harvesting. In
the early years, emphasis was mostly on identification, research, refinement and promotion of
technologies that smallholder farmers could adapt.
Over the years, various RWH techniques have been proposed, tested and adopted by land users
across eastern and southern Africa. These can be grouped roughly into five broad types:
(i) rooftop RWH and storages in either surface or underground tanks;

(ii)runoff harvesting from open surfaces and paths, roads, rocks, and its storage in ponds,
underground tanks or other structures;
(ii) flood flow harvesting from valleys, gullies, temporary streams and its storage in ponds,
weirs, small dams;
(iii) flood flow harvesting from ephemeral water courses and its storage within sand
formations as sub-surface or sand dams;
 (iv)Runoff harvesting and its diversion from any other sources when stored within the soil
profile.

Runoff harvesting and storage underground

Rainwater harvested and stored in underground tanks and the soil profile for
evapotranspiration, sometimes referred to as ‘green water’, is important for plant
growth. The design of run-on facility – such as a semi-circular bund, negarim or zai
pit – depends on many factors. These include the catchment area, volume of runoff
expected, type of crop, soil depth, and availability of labour.
Hatibu and Mahoo (2000) describe the role of RWH in agriculture and natural
resource management, from mitigating drought to preventing floods. They give
examples illustrated examples of popular techniques such as semi-circular bunds,
conservation benches, flood water harvesting, streambed systems, and ephemeral
stream diversions. The authors also cover the role of RWH in horticulture, livestock
and wildlife, forestry, rangelands and ground water recharge.
Pans and Ponds
Where the catchment is appropriate, pans and ponds are dug up to capture and store runoff
from surfaces such hillsides, roads, rocky areas and open rangelands. Pans have been used to
harvest rainwater in many parts of East Africa, especially for livestock. When well designed
and with good sedimentation basins, pans can collect significant amounts of water for
livestock and for irrigating crops to augment rainfall. But pans have their problems. These
include their relatively small capacities, high rates of silting, loss of water through seepage
and high evaporation losses.
To control seepage, ponds can be lined with a special dam-plastic (Cherogony 2000)
popularized by RELMA. However, the high cost of good-quality plastic lining, which often
needs to be factory-made to measure, is a major constraint for smallholder farmers. Cheaper
methods such as clay grouting should be encouraged.
RAINWATER HARVESTING IN KENYA
Contribution to the Global Environmental Ministers Forum Jeju
by the Minister for Water Resources Management and Development and by Kenya
Rainwater Association (KRA), Nairobi, Kenya.
1.1 Rainwater Harvesting
In the water cycle, while there are several methods by which the earth looses water,
there is only through rainfall does the water come back to the earth. At this stage the
water is relatively clean and can be collected for use with minimal capital investment.
Compared to the conventional systems of water supply for domestic consumption,
agriculture, industrial and other uses that emphasise abstraction from surface streams,
deep wells and even the seas, rainwater is much cheaper, as it requires minimum
treatment and needs little if any reticulation systems.
It is paradoxical however, to allow rainwater to flow over the surface of the earth and
cause environmental disasters such as the negative impacts of flooding, landslides and
soil erosion while it is possible to harness it for use in households, agriculture,
industrial as well as for livestock and environmental improvement. Kenya is among
the water scarce countries of Africa and has also seen her water storage per capita
deteriorate with time to critical levels. It is for this reason that Kenya is promoting
rainwater harvesting and utilization.
1.2 Partners in Rainwater Harvesting
In Kenya today the key players in rainwater harvesting include the following
government ministries: Ministry of Water Resources Management and Development,
Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife and Ministry of
Agriculture. Several NGOs and other Community-Based Organizations at national
and local levels have played a major role in putting rainwater harvesting in the
limelight. Through Southern and Eastern Africa Rainwater Network (SearNet)
established with the assistance of International Rainwater Catchment System
Association and the support of the Regional Land Management Unit of UNEP, Kenya
has been able to exchange information on rainwater harvesting with other countries in
the east and southern Africa sub-regions. At the local levels, church organizations and
women Groups have been very active in this field.
UNEP and other UN agencies have conducted pilot projects and workshops in Kenya
to promote rainwater harvesting at national and local levels. Some bilateral
development partners have also supported the use of this technology. The private
sector has been instrumental through manufacture of components needed to
implement rainwater harvesting projects such as gutters, roofing material, concrete
1.3 The Holistic Nature of Rainwater Harvesting
The idea of creating an integrated system of subsistence for both rural and urban
households is uniquely defined by the initiation of rainwater harvesting system. The
flexibility of rainwater harvesting gives room for innovation. For example, there can
arise an interrelation of variety of both economic and social activities that can
improve living standards. The main idea starts from intercepting rainwater as a
hydrological cycle component and diverting it to food/feed production including
processing, marketing and compost sourcing/recycling. This is basically a holistic
approach of interactions of many profitable activities originating from a controlled
water source. From one rainwater harvesting storage structure can arise a myriad of
interrelated activities including kitchen gardens, poultry keeping, zero grazing, biogas
digester installations, manure harvesting, drip irrigation for horticultural crops
production and fish farming among other economic activities. All these activities have
a projection on increased income generation, improved nutrition status, improved
sanitation and personal hygiene, creation of on-farm employment leading to poverty
reduction and conservation of the environment.
1.4 How Rainwater Harvesting Addresses Environmental Issues of MDGs and
WSSD Targets.
According to the Global Water Partnership, ‘IWRM is an approach that ensures the
coordinated development of water, land and related resources to optimise economic
and social welfare without compromising on the sustainability of environmental
systems’. It can be seen that rainwater harvesting fits well in this scheme. A good
example can be cited of a planting pit (or Trench) used to trap rainwater in organic
matter to grow Napier grass for livestock. In this case, rainwater-harvesting structure
is being applied to achieve soil conservation, forestation, provision of water and
nutrients to the crops and provision of additional feed for livestock. This in turn
implies increased food and/or income for the farmer, and effectively addresses
livelihood and poverty issues.
2.0 Mainstreaming/Sustainability of Rainwater Harvesting
Kenya’s water policy takes into account all the relevant issues including water
conservation and preservation of its quality. In this regard, mainstreaming of
rainwater harvesting is very prominent. In agricultural production, rainwater
harvesting is mainstreamed into the soil and water conservation. This approach
promotes rainwater harvesting on the field thus minimising run off. Through a
presidential initiative, district competitions are held to encourage farmers in water and
soil conservation. Initially the emphasis was more on soil conservation but there has
been a shift in thinking towards rainwater harvesting and soil conservation as equally
important components.
Though it is not mandatory for institutional buildings to have rainwater-harvesting
facilities, many institutional government buildings especially in the rural areas, as
such as hospitals and schools have installed rainwater-harvesting facilities. To make
rainwater harvesting sustainable, there is need to include the initiative in the national
Integrated Water Resources Management strategy.
Rainwater harvesting is not new, as communities in Kenya have practised it for a long
time. Most rainwater harvesting technologies are simple, acceptable and replicable
across many cultural and economic settings. There are many success stories that can
be cited particularly in the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya where rainwater
harvesting has been replicated. Such rainwater harvesting include Kasaye project with
its agriculture component, implemented by the Kenya Rainwater Association.
UNEP/Earth Care Africa project on empowering women in rainwater harvesting has a
strong women and gender component. In Machakos, the project consists of harvesting
water and storing it in sand and sub-surface dams. All projects have strong training
components in order to build capacity of operators/artisans.
The projects have been replicated directly by neighbouring communities after they
realise the positive impacts of the technology, and upon field visits from the same or
different communities, training workshops where rainwater has been discussed.
Operation manuals and water quality guidelines have been developed for use as tools
4.0 Lessons Learnt
The most important lesson learnt in the implementation of rainwater harvesting is the
need to take serious consideration of environmental impact assessment before
conducting any major rainwater storage project. The implication of various
interventions to the entire basin must be taken into account, project be developed with
the beneficial community, and community allowed time to understand and
internalised new technologies for their acceptance. In all projects undertaken, it has
been vital to train the community in the initial stages of the project so that at the end
of the project time skills are left behind to serve community members who may be
keen in adopting the technologies.