Challenges in Alleviating Water Scarcity in Mutonguni Ward, Kitui County

Abstract

Water scarcity have become rampant worldwide especially in ASAL, s due to climate change and increased population where about two billion people live in water scarce areas. Efforts to alleviate water scarcity have born no fruits due to many challenges faced by the stakeholders involved in water provision and supply projects. This study focused in contributing to the mitigation measures to challenges in alleviating water scarcity. The study was carried out in Mutonguni ward located in Kitui West Sub County in Kitui County. A descriptive research design was used where survey method and observational studies were used to obtain data. SPSS and MS Excel Soft wares were used to code and key in data and then display it in tables, graphs and charts. The study revealed water scarcity to be at far extent in Mutonguni ward whereby acute, moderate and temporal extents were reported to be 56.3%,28.1% and 15.6% by the responses respectively. The major causes of water scarcity identified in this area were prolonged drought, population growth, biased distribution of water and broken down water supply system with the minor causes being water wastage by consumers and suppliers, pollution and use in irrigation. The government and other involved stakeholders have tried to alleviate water scarcity by erection of water storage facilities and companies, conservation of water sheds, creation of awareness, establishment of laws and policies on sustainable water use, establishment of water service boards and companies and promotion of conservation agriculture. However, they have not succeeded since they have been experiencing challenges like increase in climate change, rampant poverty levels, high illiterate nature of the residents of this area, political interference, conflicting sectorial laws and policies, change in government structure, increased urbanization and pollution of water resources. To improve sustainable water availability in this area, the community in cooperation with other stakeholders has to use the funds collected after selling water to improve and create more sources of water, issue incentives and subsidies to the people so as to protect water catchment areas, ensure all the runoff is harvested and stored for use in dry spells and control the population by use of family planning methods. The deliverables from this research work (the outputs) are directed to the primary and secondary beneficiaries who are supposed to take action and alleviate the problem of water scarcity and extend the benefits to the community and the environment and ensure that the research outputs lead to advances in relevant research fields. The research took a maximum of four months