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.