Assessing the roles of water resources users associations in line with the principles of integrated river basin management: case study of the Kuywa water resources users association

Abstract

Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) has become a rallying call of mainstream thinking on water resources management across the world. The Dublin Principles (1992) and the Rio Conference’s Agenda 21 (1992) both stressed aspects of water resources management that are supposed to be integrated at the river basin level. In Kenya, the Water Act 2016 recognizes the river basin as the planning unit for water resources management and establishes Water Resources Users Associations (WRUAs) as vehicles for conflict resolution and collaborative management of water resources at the sub-basin level. The WRUA Development Cycle (WDC) which is the tool that guides formation of WRUAs and development of their Sub-Catchment Management Plans (SCMPs) has been developed based on the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) but it does not provide clear guidelines to the WRUAs towards achieving Integrated River Basin Management within the entire basins. The objective of this research was to assess the extent to which the WRUAs’ mandate as established in the WDC fits in with the principles of Integrated River Basin Management at the sub-basin level, and to establish the extent to which the WRUAs are implementing Integrated River Basin Management through their planned and funded activities. The case study was the Kuywa Water Resources Users Association operating in the Kuywa river sub-basin in western Kenya. The study reviewed the Kuywa WRUA’s SCMP to identify core activities planned for implementation and how they relate with the established principles of Integrated River Basin Management. Data for analysis was collected through semi-structured questionnaires administered to a sample of the population; through focus group discussions with the WRUA management committee; through key informant interviews with officials from Water Resources Authority (WRA) and Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF); through field observations from transect walks; and through collection of secondary data from government offices, from the WRUA’s records and from other sources. Data collected was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics, Version 20.0). The study found out that the WRUAs’ activities were generally in line with the principles of Integrated River Basin Management, and that the WRUAs were having a major impact on the conservation of their sub-basins. However, lack of technical capacity and limited funding were xv the two major hindrances to the WRUA’s efforts towards Integrated River Basin Management at the sub-basin level. The study recommends that capacity building trainings, especially for the WRUA central management committees and the technical committees, should be continuously enhanced in order to equip the WRUAs with necessary skills to deliver on their mandate. Both the national and county governments should prioritize the conservation of water and natural resources so that sufficient funds are allocated towards the same in their annual budgets. Finally the study recommends that WRA should improve on coordination of conservation efforts within each basin and should facilitate setting up of basin-wide forums which provide an opportunity for WRUAs within the same basin to interact and consolidate their efforts towards Integrated River Basin Management