This archive report was first published on 18 August 2019.
Published on August 18, 2019, a day when the water situation in Kenya seemed to echo the words of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: 'Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.'
Kenya's agriculture sector, which contributes 26% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) directly and another 27% indirectly, is predominantly rain-fed. However, farmers' access to water is often limited due to seasonal variation.
Public investments in water resources and infrastructure are insufficient to meet water demands in areas where people cannot afford to utilize water sources on their own. In fact, many parts of Kenya have an abundance of water available.
Groundwater resources, such as aquifers, are relatively abundant but remain underutilized, with less than 5% of the water used for irrigation coming from groundwater.
To increase the amount of available water for agriculture, water harvesting can be done at the field, farm, or watershed level.
The fact that Kenya's agriculture sector needs to transition from rain-fed agriculture to irrigation for sustainability is not a complex concept. However, several factors hinder progressive irrigation, including the lack of a national policy and a legal and institutional framework.
Kenya lacks a national policy to guide the development and management of irrigation activities. The existing Irrigation Act Cap 347, which created the National Irrigation Board (NIB) for the management and expansion of national irrigation schemes, seems to be gathering dust on government shelves.
The inadequate development of irrigation infrastructure and water storage facilities is evident, despite the existence of the National Irrigation Board.
Irrigation systems in Kenya can be categorized into three broad types: public schemes, smallholder community irrigation schemes, and private schemes. Of these, only private schemes are thriving, while the other two lag behind.
There is a need for increased public and private sector collaboration in irrigation investment, as irrigation systems development is an expensive venture with infrastructure development accounting for the major share of the investment cost.
