Challenges Faced by the Kenya Water Sector Management in Improving Water Supply Coverage

Chepyegon, Chemeril; Kamiya, Daisuke

doi:10.4236/jwarp.2018.101006

Cited by 21 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Rapid population growth and urbanisation in sub-Saharan Africa-where climate variability is high-increases the need to think carefully about water challenges. East African countries' development goals-including Tanzania's-may indeed be jeopardised by water challenges [2,3] and threats to biodiversity. The loss of biodiversity triggered by depleted water resources would affect ecosystem services stemming from rivers and the country's national economy.…”

Section: Infrastructural Modernisation and Formalisation Of Water Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Users Associations in Tanzania: Local Governance for Whom?

Richards

2019

Water

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In order to implement Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) according to good practice, governments and development agencies have promoted the setting-up of Water Users Associations (WUAs) as a broadly applicable model for water management at the local level. WUAs are promoted as key to the rolling out of IWRM principles through a participative process. Using intensive qualitative data, this paper discusses Tanzanian WUAs in light of the Regulatory Framework within which they operate. I argue that although the government’s objectives are to achieve an equitable and sustainable allocation of water resources, the formalisation of water allocation has led to the exclusion of specific water users. This paper focuses on the Great Ruaha River Catchment (GRRC), where water scarcity has led to competition between investors and small-scale water users. The GRRC is an environment in which formal and informal practices overlap, due to legal pluralism and the incremental implementation of water governance frameworks. This study calls for a reassessment of the role of WUAs in Tanzania. There is a clear gap between the theoretical clarity of tasks handed to WUAs (particularly their role in formalising access to water), and the messiness of everyday practice.

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Section: Infrastructural Modernisation and Formalisation Of Water Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Users Associations in Tanzania: Local Governance for Whom?

Richards

2019

Water

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“…This, it does by collecting and testing water samples from a randomly selected number of boreholes to measure a chosen set of parameters for rating using the World Health Organization (WHO, 2008) guidelines and National Environment Management Authority drinking water standards' scale. For more details on the structure and challenges of water resources management system in Kenya, refer to the recent review work by [78]. For Lang'ata sub County area for example, [79] did a physico-chemical quality assessment of groundwater.…”

Section: Local Scenementioning

confidence: 99%

Water Quality Index for Assessment of Potability of Groundwater Resource in Langata Sub County, Nairobi-Kenya

Ochungo¹,

Ouma²,

Obiero³

et al. 2019

AJWR

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Water Quality Index (WQI) computation method based on quality parameters' selection, assigning of weights, creation of sub-indices and calculation of the aggregated quality value has been used for many decades from the early 1960s to check on the pollution stati of watersheds. Today, due to rising water demand in the face of increased drought induced water shortage challenges and rampant pollution of the water sources, consumers augment their needs by using groundwater resources like in the case of Langata sub County in Nairobi city-Kenya. Little however, has been done to assess the overall potability of groundwater quality here. Accordingly, in the present study, a Water Quality Index (WQI) was developed by Weight Arithmetic Water Quality Index (WAWQI) method to fill that identified gap using a five categories' grading scale, viz. excellent (A), very good (B), good (C), fairly good (D), suitable (E) and unsuitable (F). To realize this, chemical parameters' concentration ranges were defined on the basis of the Kenyan Standards (KS) and International Standards of World Health Organization (WHO).Subsequently, a total of eight chemical parameters were selected based on their level of occurrence in borehole commissioning data obtained from Water Resource Management Authority's database of the area viz; K+, Na+, Ca2+, Fe2+, F-, Cl-, SO4-2 and Ec (µS/cm). Out of a total of 137 boreholes, only 39 had complete eight chemical parameters. These 39 boreholes' water quality assessment is taken in this study as a true representation of the entire area's groundwater quality. The individual concentrations were spatially plotted using Surfer Software's digital terrain model (DTM) which produced contoured maps in different chroma saturations including the overall aggregated concentration to facilitate scale ranking. The WQI for the study area is 53.18 in a scale of 1 to 100, with one being excellent. In this case, the groundwater quality was ranked as grade 'C'. WQI calculation method is known to improve the understanding of water quality issues by integrating a suite of data into a single value which describes the status of water quality. WQI is very useful for the water management authorities because it facilitates their informing of the public on water quality in a simplified form.

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“…On top of these reported scarcity, management of water resources in general is still a big problem [57]. For example Nairobi is known to experience severe water shortage since the demand exceeds the supply by about 200,000 m 3 per day.…”

Section: The Situational Analysis Of the Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment of Groundwater Grab Syndrome in Langata Sub County, Nairobi City-Kenya

Ochungo¹,

Ouma²,

Obiero³

et al. 2019

JWARP

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Interest on the investigation of groundwater depletion threat is growing globally and Langata sub County in Nairobi, the capital city of the Republic of Kenya, is not an exception. Because of drought-induced water shortage, households in Langata do rely on borehole water to augment their intermittent municipal water supply system. Consequently, there is an upsurge of borehole developments as drought events unfold. Previous studies here have focused on impact of borehole depths and density yet little seems to have been done to compute the correlation coefficient between drought events data and historical borehole development records as an assessment for groundwater "grab" syndrome. This study used drought index computation method (SPI) alongside other statistical methods to seek the answer to the problem. Using 57 years of monthly rainfall data and 26 years of borehole development data, the study established that, there is a positive correlation coefficient. Similarly, a trend analysis of borehole drilling and struck water level depths indicated a positive parallel rising trend on both. Further, when the borehole distribution map and struck water level contour maps were plotted, a sign of a probable well interference during pumping was detected, which however, requires a new investigation to confirm the syndrome of groundwater depletion threat. The study has contributed to the groundwater depletion research by deploying statistical research methods for risk detection. Finally, the study has proposed for a new groundwater management policy that will encourage initiation of artificial recharge schemes for the study site and beyond.

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Challenges Faced by the Kenya Water Sector Management in Improving Water Supply Coverage

Cited by 21 publications

References 11 publications

Water Users Associations in Tanzania: Local Governance for Whom?

Water Users Associations in Tanzania: Local Governance for Whom?

Water Quality Index for Assessment of Potability of Groundwater Resource in Langata Sub County, Nairobi-Kenya

An Assessment of Groundwater Grab Syndrome in Langata Sub County, Nairobi City-Kenya

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