{"id":7607,"date":"2020-01-20T14:07:33","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T11:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=7607"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:48","slug":"how-water-harvesting-could-solve-scarcity-puzzle-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2020\/01\/20\/how-water-harvesting-could-solve-scarcity-puzzle-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"How Water Harvesting Could Solve Scarcity Puzzle \u2013 Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Environmentalists\nreckon that Kenya and other countries in East Africa could ensure water\nsecurity for their economies amid climate change through large-scale water\nharvesting techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to John Kioli, the Executive Director and CEO of the Green Africa Foundation, construction of strategic dams to trap rainwater could alleviate water shortages during dry spells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This would, in turn, increase resilience of communities against the harsh effects of climate change and reduce water-based human conflicts, especially in arid areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDry areas\nlike Kitui, Makueni or Lamu have seasonal rivers. Sand dams or dykes can be\nconstructed during the rainy seasons. This trapped water can then be\neffectively utilized by both the community and their animals whenever there is\na water shortage,\u201d Kioli said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMore\ndams should be built in addition to the existing ones. This might even prevent\npeople from digging their own boreholes, most of which end up drying shortly\nafter,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Water\nscarcity in arid areas has in the past led to resource-based conflicts. And with\nthe effects of climate change becoming intense, such conflicts could worsen if\nnothing changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s\npartly because of this that Green Africa Foundation has been running a\ngrassroots sensitisation drive in such areas on climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn the\nNorthern frontier like Wajir, Tana River or Samburu, there have been too many\ncases of human and animal conflict over the availability of drinking water.\nWhen water is scarce there will always be scuffles to get the natural resource\nthereby leading to conflicts that can be avoided\u201d Kioli said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"926\" height=\"669\" src=\"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/borehole.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7608\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/borehole.jpg 926w, https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/borehole-300x217.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/borehole-768x555.jpg 768w, https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/borehole-585x423.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px\" \/><figcaption>Women fetching clean water from a borehole (theconversation.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Water is a basic human need and that\u2019s why it\u2019s one of the pillars of Sustainability Development Goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Climate\nchange is, however, leading to the drying up of many streams and rivers,\nexacerbating the water shortage challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The United\nNations Development Programme projects that by 2050 at least one in four people\nwill suffer recurring water shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet currently, more than 80 percent of wastewater from human activities ends up discharged into rivers and seas, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If only\nthis water would be recycled for other uses, especially in light of a growing\nglobal population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Environmentalists reckon that Kenya and other countries in East Africa could ensure water security for their economies amid climate change through large-scale water harvesting techniques. According to John Kioli, the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":7609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[509,717,1525],"class_list":["post-7607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-responsibility","tag-east-africa","tag-green-africa-foundation","tag-water-harvesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}