Adoption of Sustainable Water Resource Management Practices

This book is about enhancing sustainable natural resource utilization and management in the Upper and Mid Mara river basin, Kenya. The basin is a Trans-boundary resource and is depended upon by Kenya and the bordering Tanzania. However, during the prolonged dry season, only a few perennial rivers remain whose environmental flows is inadequate to support the ecosystem and the livelihoods depending on it. The book uses a social approach to analyze the water management practices that the people living in the Basin have adopted, assesses whether they are sustainable as well as determines the factors that influence the adoption of these practices. The assessment recommends the need for Kenyan county governments in collaboration with the Ministry of Water, Environment and Natural Resources to empower Water-Users Associations and organizations through awareness creation and capacity building. It also recommends interventions on the significant household's socio-economic characteristics and the household's major sources of water used for livestock purposes. This will aim at optimizing sustainable use, management and conservation of local water resources in the Mara River Basin.