Understanding the links between Water, Livelihoods and Poverty in the Nyando River Basin, Kenya.

Abstract

Implementation of integrated watershed management policies is often challenged by the presence of poor, marginalized people in upper catchments who typically depend on the natural resource base for their livelihoods. Upstream resource management practices, however, commonly produce water transitions degrading environmental conditions and livelihood support of lowland areas, where the resulting hydrologically-vulnerable situation traps people in waterrelated poverty. This generalized account aptly describes the Nyando River basin of western Kenya. The basin is a significant source of sediment loading into Lake Victoria providing strong impetus for conservation-oriented land management practices in the upper catchment. This is complicated by the widespread poverty conditions of the basin such that the livelihoods at stake must be considered. An optimal goal is to implement a management strategy that can achieve the desired environmental outcome while simultaneously improving livelihoods and alleviating poverty. Social equity conditions would also be met if this goal is inclusive of all households. The current study is part of the international Challenge Program on Water and Food, Theme 2 project, SCALES, which is testing the hypothesis that investments in building social capital and fostering collective action around water management can assist households in escaping poverty traps. This study’s main goal is to assess the potential for change in livelihood outcomes that could result from any new cooperative efforts in water management by probing the dynamic relationship between water, livelihoods and poverty over the period from 1977 to 2002. The analysis finds that demographic and geographical conditions are principal drivers behind the dynamic patterns of poverty within the basin. Institutional changes consequential to the economic reforms of the 1990s combined with exogenous climatic shocks to deepen poverty substantially over the decade. The conclusion reached is that while local group action is important for alleviating the most immediate conditions of poverty, wider structural reform is necessary to arrest the conditions that will otherwise reproduce poverty into the future.