Productive water uses at household level in rural Kenya: case study of the Ukambani district

As a result of the growing world population and enhanced by the rising of living standards, competition for water is growing and this causes increased pressure on water resources worldwide. This tendency gave rise to the development of the integrated water resources management approach (IWRM), acknowledging the need to manage water resources in a holistic and integrated way. The IWRM objective to optimize economic, social and environmental outcomes of water management, can however only be reached if impact of water uses is correctly assessed. Nevertheless, often multiple uses of water within sectors are insufficiently recognized in planning and management. One of these neglected uses is the productive water use by households. Nonetheless, this use is extremely important to the livelihood of the poor, especially in the vast semi-arid rural areas of the developing world. An adequate evaluation of this use will not only help to improve outcome of water management, but will also add to the goal of poverty reduction. In this study, the role of productive water use for the rural community of the Ukambani district in Kenya was monitored, thereby focusing on income contributions and improvements in nutritional status