Water scarcity affects over 40 percent of the world and, with climate change, the situation could worsen.
Its per capita water availability of 600 cubic metres is below the global threshold of 1,000m³ and unpredictable due to climate change and increasing demands at household and farm levels.
Sustainable Development Goal Number Six (SDG 6) is aimed at ensuring that everybody has access to safe and affordable drinking water — an essential commodity for human survival.
Water scarcity affects over 40 percent of the world and, with climate change, the situation could worsen.
Kenya is a water-scarce country.
In 2017, the government, in partnership with development actors and the business community, launched the Kenya Chapter of Billion Dollar Alliance for Water Harvesting, designed to scale up farm pond technology to increase water harvesting in the arid and semi-arid areas.
In the urban areas, rainfall is seen as a curse due to its resultant effects of massive traffic congestion, accidents and flooding.
In these areas rainwater harvesting is a non-priority.
According to the 2009 census, only 0.8 percent of urban residents practise water harvesting, whereas in the rural areas it is seen as a big blessing.
Despite low excavation costs, other expenses for retaining the water and ensuring good quality make the farm pond unavoidable to certain community segments, hence the need for government and NGO intervention in the entire water harvesting chain.