Rainwater Harvesting Technologies in Makueni County, Kenya

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