Community Watershed Planning

Problems with water in the middle of a wetland? It may seem like an unlikely scenario, but the western Ugandan villages around the Rwambu river once faced this problem. A Risk and Opportunity Mapping showed us that rivers and springs used to provide clean water. As the population began to grow, people opened more land for cultivation on the hills and water drained quickly, picking up pollution and dirt and getting no time to infiltrate and recharge the springs. The result was a shortage of clean water and people resorted to polluted water sources in the wetland. The WASH Alliance International asked RAIN, a brand of Aidenvironment, to work together with local NGOs and governments to increase the availability of drinking water and water for productive use, whilst restoring the wetland. The wetland reduces silt and rubbish in the water, acting as a natural reservoir. To better protect the water sources and the local ecology we supported the partners to develop a unique 3R Intervention Plan for Rwambu, a catchment based water resource management plan with low-cost techniques such as planting rows of trees; letting groundwater recover by building stone walls around the hills to stop the rainwater running off them.

For years, the people in the Sikasso and Koulikoro regions in Mali had to deal with water shortages. To address this challenge, the local government asked RAIN to help them increase the water tables, provide access to sustainable access to water- and sanitation services and restore the environment. First a baseline study was conducted to understand the situation in the two areas. For each area a broad 3R intervention plan was developed. The original idea to construct new dams in the selected catchment areas was abolished because of high costs and environmental implications. Ultimately the decision was made to rehabilitate two existing, but damaged valley dams - the first visible steps in the 3R approach, next to ongoing training of the various stakeholders. Installing stone barriers was another 3R technique used in Mali, which caused a surprising response from farmers. They used their own oxcarts to carry these stones from the hilltops to their fields and constructed new barriers themselves. This local resource mobilization was remarkable, because we assumed that the costs of stone transport would be the limiting factor for the farmers. This case shows the importance of taking into account the capacity of the local community to implement the 3R techniques and methods themselves.