Zonation of water pans for surface water harvesting using GIS in Marigat division, Kenya

Abstract

Water is essential for human survival, food security, environment and sustainable development. Marigat division experiences water shortages during the dry seasons despite the area receiving torrential rain during the raining season that go to waste as surface runoff that occasionally cause flood disasters. With use of storage facilities, it is possible to harness the surface runoff when it rains for use in domestic, livestock and environmental improvement. Harvesting of surface water runoff in water pans provides a direct solution especially in rural and drought prone areas and is one rapid way to improve water storage in rural areas. In this study Geographical Information System (GIS) was used to determine the suitable sites for constructing water pans for harvesting surface runoff. Several criteria were used such as creating buffers around the agricultural areas, roads, rivers, and settlements. Weighted overlay suitability analysis within GIS was used to site the potential sites of water pans, weightings were assigned to each criterion depending upon their relative significance. From the analysis, results indicate that there are high to low suitable sites for construction of water pans in the study area.