Problems of river-water management for a basin west of Mount Kenya: challenge to water resource planners.

Abstract

A case study was conducted in two reaches in the Naro Moru river basin, which extends from the humid western slopes of Mount Kenya to the semi-arid Laikipia plateau. The study involved measuring the amount of water abstracted from all abstraction points, as well as river discharge, for a period of eight months starting from November 1990. Results showed that the amount of water abstracted from each reach as a percentage of the available river inflow rose from 10% at the end of the wet season to over 60% at the end of the dry season. A survey of water permits revealed that legal abstractions constituted 30% of the amount abstracted during the wet season, but only 8% of the dry season abstractions. Communal water supply systems taking water for domestic use, for watering livestock and for irrigation accounted for over 90% of the water that was abstracted from the river during the period of study.