Assessment of the availability of water for livestock use in the Mara river basin

Abstract

2018the study was set out to assess the availability of water mainly for livestock use over mara river basin. The basin rainfall pattern was compared to the mara river (main ecological river in the basin) flow. The study was necessitated by the fact that about 62% of the households are smallholder farmers, with livestock rearing being the second dominant activity for social-economic development. Livestock and human populations as well as climate variability were cross checked from previous studies. The mara river is the most ecologically significant river in the region. Meeting the water demands of the different sectors while maintaining a healthy environment ,requires understanding of the hydrology (water flux) and the major hydro meteorological processes responsible for the changes in the water balance. Historical analysis of the rainfall information has shown that the annual rainfall amount did not change significantly but the seasonal and monthly distribution varied over the study period. The upper basin has shown little variability in the monthly mean rainfall amount as the lower. Analysis of the flow records now shows minimum and mean flows of the basin having positive trends as shown by both amala and nyangores in figures 9 and 10. The amala’s flow was much lesser than the adjacent nyangores basin of a similar drainage area (figure 7) attributed to the areas of traverse