Proceedings of the second national conference on rainwater catchment systems in Kenya, Nairobi, 30th August - 4th September, 1992

Although hundreds of millions of people living in developing countries continue to lack reasonable access to adequate supplies of safe drinking water, the human population in regions deficient in water resources is steadily increasing. Rainwater harvestingand storage is increasingly being recognized as an affordable, environmentally sound and appropriate technology to help alleviate the problems of water supply in many of these arid zones. This document presents the proceedings of the Second National Conference on Rainwater Catchment Systems held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1992. The report notes that about 88% of Kenya is classed as arid or semi-arid which not only creates severe problems for the inhabitants but also hampers agricultural and industrial development. It states the objectives of the conference to share experiences on the suitability of rainwater harvesting systems, to review the problems that hinder their optimum utilization and to identify practical solutions for the maximum beneficial utilization of this technology. In this document the papers delivered at the conference are grouped under appropriate headings; namely, (1) state of the art of rainwater harvesting including a paper on the role of women and health education in rainwater harvesting; (2) rainwater harvesting technologies including papers on designing, building and maintaining appropriate storage tanks; (3) planning and management of rainwater harvesting systems; (4) environmental considerations; (5) practical experiences and case studies from various districts of Kenya; and (6) field trips, discussions and conclusions. The proceedings of this National Conference were seen as an important preparation for upcoming international conferences on rainwater catchment systems.