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.