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WETLANDS INTERNATIONAL
Poor access to clean and adequate water has a direct impact on livelihoods. Marginalised and vulnerable groups such as pastoralists, women, the very poor and persons living with disability are usually the most affected. Unfortunately, in semi-arid areas, where water is not just life but a political tool as well, those most desperate for water are cut off from politics and decision making and rarely participate in the planning, management and distribution of water resources. The Watershed Programme in Kenya was, therefore, structured to strengthen CSOs and citizen groups to access and process information and improve their capacity to lobby government and other institutions involved in improving WRM and the delivery of water and sanitation services that last. Apart from training WRUAs in water resource management, institutional governance, and management, development and implementation of water catchment protection tools, the Programme also helped to demonstrate linkages
between WRM and water, sanitation and hygiene issues in the Kajiado and Laikipia counties’ annual and five-year development plans. From a sustainability perspective, WRM and WASH are also embedded in the Kajiado County Natural Resources Management Bill, the Kajiado County Water Policy, and the Environmental Management and Coordination (Conservation and Management of Wetlands) Amendment Regulations 2018. This is in part because of Watershed’s lobbying and advocacy efforts. While a great deal of work still lies ahead, the dialogue forums the Programme helped create in both counties provide platforms for integration, coordination, joint planning and leveraging of resources for implementation of sustainable WRM and WASH plans. By Lilian Nyaega - Regional Programme Officer Wetlands International Eastern Africa and Titus Wamae - Regional Policy & Advocacy Officer Wetlands International Eastern Africa • Multi-stakeholder platforms are useful in advancing collaborative action in water resources governance including translating joint decisions into development interventions and outcomes. The involvement of key stakeholders in such planning can strengthen ownership from water users particularly when developed in the context of policy and practice dialogues on WRM and WASH. • There is a clear and pressing need for county and national government agencies to strengthen the financial dimension of water resources management. Addressing these gaps call for innovation, cooperation and goodwill.
Key Messages
• While users, practitioners and decision-makers appreciate that WRM and WASH are intrinsically connected, it is not always clear what those linkages are and how to make the best use of the linkages to promote WASH and WRM in both policy and practice. Disseminating knowledge from this interaction can inform and bring about changes in water use and governance. • The failure to include vulnerable and marginalised people in decision-making processes remains a major hurdle for their engagement in policy making. When given the opportunity, they contribute their unique experiences and valuable perspectives to decision-making, creating avenues for sustainable WRM and WASH.
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