Roads for Water program in Makueni County to protect roads

Makueni County has developed a concept of climate change adaptation that will see area residents participate in helping drain rain water from the roads into the farms.

According to County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Public Works, Transport, Energy and Roads Philip Ndambuki, area residents living along the roads in the county are being sensitized to be part of the Roads for Water program that will see them sink water pans on their roads to be used in collecting rainwater.

“We are designing our roads to provide for ways of draining rain water into the farms along the roads,” Ndambuki said in an interview at the county headquarters in Wote adding, “We are also sensitizing our people to understand the need to harvest rain water given that our county is one of the Arid and Semi Arid Lands in the country, hence take advantage of the rainwater.”

The CECM noted that when due to the rainfall that comes in storms it accumulates on the road destroying the bitumen used in constructing the roads.

Ndambuki says that the program has already proved tio be a success as most farmers who have often lacked water for micro-irrigation are now able to collect the water in the water pans which is then used for irrigation.
He noted that the program has shown benefits that include increasing the area under productive cultivation.

“The beauty of that water that is drained from the road is that, instead of the water being left on the road, it is drained into the lands to irrigate the crops on the farms, protecting the roads from runoff water,” said Ndambuki.

Conservationists are calling for adaptation to climate change so as to have resilient communities in the face of the impacts arising from the change in climate.