This paper presents a conceptual framework addressing groundwater governance and management issues to promote water security for the poor in Kenya’s urban areas. The approach is flexible, scalable, transferrable, can be monitored using set indicators and is thus directly relevant to practitioners and policy makers working towards the development of holistic and effective solutions for groundwater development, supply, and governance.
Kenya
Empowerment and water security among pastoralist women in the Maasai and Samburu communities of Northern Kenya
This study explores questions around women, water and gendered power relations in Laikipia and Samburu counties of Northern Kenya using qualitative methods.
A Hybrid Approach to Decolonize Formal Water Law in Africa
This study, funded by REACH as part of an Accelerated Grant, explains the state of water permitting in sub-Saharan Africa and proposes a hybrid approach to water law as the way forward.
Finding sustainable water futures in data-sparse regions under climate change: Insights from the Turkwel River basin, Kenya
Kenya’s Turkwel river basin experiences a high level of water scarcity due to its arid climate, high rainfall variability and rapidly growing water demand. In this paper, a novel decision-scaling approach was applied to model the response of the Turkwel river basin’s water resources system to growing demand and climate stressors.
Understanding factors and actors to achieve sustainable drinking water systems in Kitui County, Kenya
Despite significant progress in building over 3,000 waterpoints across Kitui County in recent years, the challenge of providing sustainable drinking water services remains high. This brief presents the ranking of different factors for sustainable systems based on priorities of 42 Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) actors in a forum hosted in February 2018.
A cultural theory of drinking water risks, values and institutional change
This Policy Brief, based on an article by Koehler et al (2018), explores how drinking water risks are managed in rural Africa and considers pluralist institutional arrangements that enable risks and responsibilities to be re-conceptualised and re-allocated between the state, market and communities to create value for rural water users.
A cultural theory of drinking water risks, values and institutional change
In this article published in Global Environmental Change, the authors apply Mary Douglas’ cultural theory to rural waterpoint management and discuss its operationalisation in pluralist arrangements through networking different management cultures at scale. The theory is tested in coastal Kenya, drawing on findings from a longitudinal study of 3500 households.
The water diary method – proof-of-concept and policy implications for monitoring water use behaviour in rural Kenya
The water diaries method consists of collecting comprehensive evidence on daily sources, uses, cost and sufficiency of water, along with weekly household expenditures. In this paper, published in Water Policy, the authors pilot the water diaries method in Kitui, Kenya and evaluate its measurement, internal and external validity.
Exploring policy perceptions and responsibility of devolved decision-making for water service delivery in Kenya’s 47 county governments
This paper examines whether devolution to Kenya’s 47 counties advances the constitutional mandate for the human right to water. The author draws on interviews from all county water ministries to develop and test a sociopolitical risk model leveraging public choice theory.
Weather and climate knowledge for water security: Institutional roles and relationships in Turkana
In this working paper the authors discuss findings from a 2016 study of the institutions involved in water decision-making in Lodwar, focusing on their access to and use (or non-use) of weather and climate information.
