WATER RESERVOIRS OFFER HOPE TO THE WATER SEARCHING NOMADIC FARMERS IN NORTH EASTERN UGANDA
Pastoralist communities generally live in isolated, remote and underserved areas and rely on mobility to take advantage of transient availability of water and grazing to eke out a fragile livelihood.
One of the Regional Pastoral Livelihoods Resilience project’s aims is to tackle constraints related to regional public goods, including water availability for humans and livestock.
During rainy season’s rivers flood, gardens are submerged and roads are cut off for days. When the sun shines, pastoral communities roam sometimes across the border to Kenya in search of water for their animals. Competition for grazing land has often sparked conflict between rival tribes. Thus the government saw it fit that water infrastructure interventions are necessary investments to improve the resilience of the pastoralist livelihoods.
The valley tanks and dams being constructed in the region will attract herders with cows, goats, sheep, donkeys and camels from far and wide. Up to 5 million animals a day drink and graze nearby these water points in the region.
The government promotes valley dams and tanks as a way of conserving water. They are a partial solution and have a long-term viability to enhance resilience in the Arid and Semi-Arid region.
The project is constructing 8 valley tanks and 4 valley dams as indicated below;
| DISTRICT | SUBCOUNTY | STRUCTURE | RESERVOIR CAPACITY (CuM) | ESTIMATED NUMBER OF BENEFICIARIES |
| 1. KAABONG | USAKE | USAKE VALLEY DAM | 670,000 | 198,500 |
| 2. MOROTO | NABERU VALLEY DAM | 1,490,000 | 121,200 | |
| 3. AMUDAT | KAECHOM VALLEY DAM | 820,000 | 140,400 | |
| 4. KOTIDO | KANAPEDI VALLEY DAM | 1,700,000 | 210,900 | |
| 5. KATAKWI | ADAI VALLEY TANK | 40,000 | 199,500 | |
| 6. KWEEN | CHEPTERE VALLEY TANK | 40,000 | 112,300 | |
| 7. NAKAPIRIPIRIT | LOREGAE | AOOYET VALLEY TANK | 40,000 | 118,100 |
| 8. AMURIA | ONGANYAKONYE VALLEY TANK | 40,000 | 232,800 | |
| 9. ABIM | OMUNGA VALLEY TANK | 40,000 | 162,900 | |
| 10. BUKEDEA | TAJAR VALLEY TANK | 30,000 | 269,900 | |
| 11. NAPAK | NAKUMAMA VALLEY TANK | 40,000 | 161,000 | |
| 12. KUMI | AGURUT VALLEY TANK | 30,000 | 292,900 |
Some of the water infrastructure is shown below
These investments are aimed at reducing mobility and increasing grazing intensity evidenced around the water sources thus leading to localized degradation. In the longer term, the presence of these permanent water sources is likely to alter the pasture dynamics within these locations.