Salient issues in water catchment management in Kenya a position paper

Abstract

Through critically examining the issues most commonly encountered in the management of water catchments in Kenya, this paper concludes that,the highlands in ecological zones II and III which supply the bulk of surface water in Kenya, though occupying less than 10% of the country, are currently under serious land-use conflict and therefore urgently require protective land-use policies reflecting their importance as National water catchments. The same should happen with isolated hills in semi-arid lands which form major catchments for temporally springs which appear during rainy seasons and later continue their flow under the sand and silt beds of rivers in the dry season.