• Reference: P-KE-EAZ-002
• Approval date: 13/01/2009
• Start date: 15/06/2010
• Appraisal Date: 31/12/2008
• Status: OngoingOnGo
• Implementing Agency: MINISTRY OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHO- RITIES
• Location: Kibuon and Tende River Catchments

The project's purpose is to empower local communities and agencies of Government to institute improved management of the catchment of the Kibuon and Tende. It will initiate recovery of the water quality and quantity through promotion of sustainable agricultural practices in the catchments. This will lead to reduction in nutrient and sediment transport into the water courses. The expected outcomes are therefore:

"Improved management of land and water resources by empowered communities and their supportive government agencies "Reduced runoff and loss of nutrients and sediment from the catchment in the project blocks "Higher levels of base flow in the rivers, with lower levels of flood peaks "Wetlands conserved "Reduced risk of aquatic weeds in the rivers and estuary in the Winam Gulf

The project's purpose is to improve land and water management in the Kibuon and Tende catchments through increased community participation and to initiate recovery of the water quality and quantity through promotion of sustainable agricultural and land use practices in the catchments, leading to reduction in nutrient and sediment transport into the water courses.

The conditions in the catchments have resulted in declining water flow with data for period from 1970 to 1989 showing a reduction of the rivers base-flow and increased incidence of flash flood events in downstream areas. The Kibuon and Tende river basin is one of the significant contributors of sediment load into the Lake Victoria. KOSHIDS gave following results in Table 1.1 below:

High sediment loads are undesirable in the river and have a direct deteriorating effect on the fish spawning areas. The Consequences: Kimira Oluch Smallholder Farmer Improvement Project (KOSFIP), an irrigation project funded by the AfDB, is based on the two rivers and will supply a total net irrigable area of 1,474 hectares to provide supplementary irrigation water, mainly during the dry season. Finally, siltation of the irrigation canals would result in shortened economic life of the project.

Deterioration of the water quality in the Gulf would have consequence for water supply to Kisumu town and on the flourishing commercial fishery providing income and food to a large number of local people. Yet nutrient build-up is increasing in the Winam Gulf as shown below.

A direct effect of eutrophication in Lake Victoria is the spread of the water hyacinth in the Lake and other water bodies in its catchment. Many activities such as fishing, transport and recreation are being hampered and efforts to control its spread have proved largely unsuccessful up to now.

The project tests the assumption that incorporating community participation into watershed management coupled with demonstrating benefits from application of sustainable land and water management practices can help adoption rates necessary to attain sustainable impacts on the water resources. These technologies have been available for some time, but need to be demonstrated for farmers to adopt and scale up. Reinforcing messages are necessary to assure users of the added benefits of adopting sustainable farming practices and livelihoods. Its results will be disseminated under the M&E component.

The project is suitable for funding under the AWF. It addresses a Water Resources quality and quantity problem under the general focal area of the crosscutting theme of Environmental Management and mainstreams the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in its approach of wide stakeholder's scope, balancing demands between consumption and the environment.

Beneficireis

The ultimate beneficiaries of the project in the long term will the people located in the entire catchment of the project in the four districts of Kisii, Nyamira, Rachuonyo, Homa Bay. In the short term the beneficiaries of the present intervention funding will be in the upper and middle catchments, and whereas the people in the lower basin will benefit from improvements in the upstream management. This underlies the need for continuous communication between the upstream and downstream users through the mechanism of the WRUAs

Impact

The intermediate effect of the project intervention in the selected blocks will be to demonstrate the benefits of applying appropriate practices in water and land management to land productivity and quality of water resources. This should lead to widespread adoption, with assistance from supporting agencies of Government, of these practices outside the blocks. The final impact to which the project will contribute is an increase in cash and subsistence output from exploitation of land, water and shoreline resources as measured by the per capita income.

More explicitly the expected long-term results of the project over the entire catchments include the following:

(i) improved and sustainable water flow discharge in the form of reduced floods and higher base-flows from the two rivers;

(ii) increased vegetative cover in the catchment, consisting of forest, standing crops and grass strips along the buffer zone of the rivers,

(iii) reduced soil and nutrient run-off, improved water quality,

(iv) improved soil structure and fertility and hence productivity, and by extension, reduced impacts on Lake Victoria ecosystem. The result will be conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, as well as improvement in quality of life in the catchment including the estuaries in the Winam Gulf. These would be achieved by wide adoption of the technologies, supported as necessary by reinforcing interventions.

EL SADANI SALEM Abdel-Kader - AWTF

Finance source	Amount
AWF	UAC 1,707,641
Delta	UAC 5
Total	UAC 1,707,646