Voice for Wetlands and Water

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WETLANDS INTERNATIONAL

Upstream water users are also not fully aware of the impact of their activities on the lives and livelihoods of downstream communities. This is one area that Watershed should have invested more time and resources in liaison with local media and stakeholder government institutions, in particular the provincial administration and county departments of public health. Innovation came across as a powerful tool in IWRM, with the Programme and its partners providing several remarkable illustrations: a County Water Council that gives WRUAs stronger political and lobbying leverage on a wider ecosystem basis; a water Sacco that enables families to harvest rainwater and brave out the impacts of climate change; livelihood projects

It is exciting to note that social inclusion under Watershed has not only given women living with disabilities the capacity to have their voices heard but also to lobby for representation in water and other county government committees. They have formed self-help groups for saving, set up small income-generating projects and purchased water harvesting and storage equipment for members. These are novelties that must be strengthened and replicated in other areas. Equally, while Watershed was well received, the thinking among both collaborating partners and water user associations was that the Programme was too short to create the desired impact. A ten-year cycle was deemed more ideal to

Women at a community borehole

such as kitchen gardens and bee farming as a fulcrum for WRM and WASH, and social inclusion interventions to avail the resource to the marginalised and the very poor.

entrench institutional capacity, establish sound policy and legal frameworks at the county level, build stronger public-private partnerships, and assure sustainability of water projects.

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