Technical Assistance Support to the Establishment of Water Resources Management Authority
This assignment involved short-term technical assistance within the context of the Kenya Water and Sanitation Programme (KWSP). The co-operation programme between Kenya, Sweden and Denmark, comprises support to 3 components: Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS), Water Resources Management (WRM), and Water Sector Reform (WSR).
The Kenya water sector is under radical reform that is driven by its national policy on water resources management and development and its strategies on water resources management and water services. The most important new institutions in the Water Sector are the Water Services Regulatory Board (WSRB), Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA), Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF), Water Appeal Board (WAB) and the Water Service Boards (WSBs). The area of responsibility for WRMA is to regulate water allocation, source protection and conservation, water quality management, pollution control and international waters.
The main focus of the assignment was to provide capacity building of the newly established WRMA at national, regional and local levels on IWRM, water resources monitoring, database development, data management, and WRUA capacity building. This was carried out with the objectives of: Establishing an efficient, continuous and reliable water resources information system for data collection, analysis and dissemination, which should be designed to respond to the actual data and information needs in relation to catchment management planning, water licensing and allocation and water resources development activities, etc, and Building the necessary capacity within the authority to run and maintain such a water resources information system and to be able to further develop the system when as and when required.
As the institutional, human and financial resources within the authority at the time and in the nearby foreseen future is expected to be limited, it was crucial that such a system should be very focused towards the requirements for data and be of a size that correspond to the financial and human resources available within the authority.