Impacts of Climate Change on Domestic Water and Population’s Adaptation Strategies in the Semi-Arid Region of Kenya

Abstract

This chapter deals with the problem of population’s access to drinking water in Kibwezi district in the semi-arid region of Kenya. Its objective is to identify the impacts of climate change on drinking water supply sources and the main adaptation strategies, as well as the population’s vulnerability according to the Kibwezi district’s subdivisions, in order to propose some resilience improvement measures. A survey questionnaire was submitted to households’ heads randomly selected following a transect. SPSS and XL-STAT software tools were used to analyze the data. It comes out that the drinking water supply sources are made up of pumps, boreholes, wells, dams, ponds, tanks, and rivers, and there are many actors in the sector. The main impacts of climate change on water are the drying up of hydraulic structures (pumps and boreholes) and the deterioration of surface water quality. The main adaptation strategies adopted are the consumption of pumps’ water and the collection and treatment of surface water. The surface water is largely polluted, the pollution having climatic and anthropogenic origins (chemical and fecal). The distance between the household and the pump is being considered as a vulnerability criterion, it comes out that the majority of population is vulnerable. In order to reduce the population’s vulnerability, decision-makers must adopt some participatory water public policies.