| dc.description.abstract | Water is one of the five basic needs necessary for human life; others being food, shelter, health and education. However water is unique in that it is a chemical from which all life depends and it cannot be substituted in its use. It is necessary for life sustainance. There is enough water in the world to sustain life but it is unevenly distributed so that some settlements are found very far from natural water sources while others maybe next to such sources but the water is unsuitable for consumption either because it is salty or because it is contaminated.
To obtain clean potable water for everyone therefore calls for governments to invest heavily on piped water schemes that enable water to be equitably distributed amongst the people. Ideally all homesteads should be having piped clean water supplies but the heavy initial capital required for such an undertaking becomes a limitation. In Kenya only about 20 percent of the population lies in the urban areas where water supply is fairly adequate. The rest of the population is unevenly distributed in the rural areas usually on small farm plots. To supply each such homestead with water calls for the central Government and the people themselves to spend a very high portion of their income on funding
water supply schemes.
Water schemes in Kenya are funded either by the Government or by the beneficiaries on "harambee" basis but highly subsidised by the Government. In the low potential areas especially arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL), the Government has been fully involved in supplying the water to the people because the people's incomes are low and the inhabitants cannot be expected to contribute any significant
amounts of money towards the funding of such schemes.
The Government of Kenya on recognising the importance of water has set itself the goal of ensuring that the whole population has access to potable water at convinient distances by year 2000 A.D. In areas where perennial sources are absent or unsuitable, piped water schemes whose sources are normally outside such areas or the ground-water extraction have been used to provide the water. Such has been the case in this study area where no naturally occuring surface water bodies are found and water supply is from a source outside the location (Bathi River Water Supply Scheme) and from several borehole schemes.
Generally, a commodity is found to be scarce either because its physical or natural occurance is inadequate or because human factors come to play and cause even a commodity that is plentiful to be scarce. In the case for water natural factors that can cause scarcity include low rainfall, lack of natural water sources such as rivers and lakes or very low water tables where groundwater is used. Human factors
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such as mismanagement of existing schemes, activities that pollute water or inequitable income distribution may also result in unequal access to water while poverty is also a factor that adds to the inaccessibility of clean water.
In the study area, the Government has done its best to ensure that there is an adequate supply of water for domestic and livestock watering purposes. Several small schemes exist but unfortunately the schemes are found to be supplying less water that they were designed to; resulting in water being in short supply. The problem is made worse by the fact that rainfall is low so it cannot be depended on to supply enough water while the area lacks in alternative sources of water since there are no perennial sources.
Having identified the problem of water shortage in Karai and having studied literature on possible causes of water shortage, this study set out to investigate what problems obtain for Karai location and in the same respect the study also undertook to investigate possible solutions to these problems. Certain recommendations have then been made whose implementation could ensure that everyone in the study area gets enough water not only for human consumption and livestock
watering but also to necessitate activities suitable for rural development of such a low potential area | |
