REPLICATION OF PROJECT INITIATIVES
At the local level, communities have been actively
involved in replication of project activities as already described
above. Not much has however taken place in other parts of the
district and other parts of the country. A dam project on the
Turkwel River was built with funding from the French government to
generate electricity and also provide gravity-fed irrigation along
the same principles as the WWIDP. To date, the dam only generates
electricity and no irrigation activities have been implemented. It
appears like funding is the key constraint but the interest to
develop a gravity-fed irrigation scheme exists.
Replication of the WWIDP has also been carried out by KVDA in the
Arror irrigation scheme in Marakwet district. A furrow has been
developed to feed water into a reservoir. Water is gravity-fed from
the reservoir to irrigate acres of land using sprinkler irrigation
technology. Project was started in 1991 and each farmer was
allocated one acre of land. The main crops grown by farmers on the
project are green gram, cowpeas and okra. KVDA and the Italian
Development Co-operation jointly provided funding for the project.
The Sondu Miriu dam project in Nyanza province was initially
designed to generate electricity and later to provide water for
irrigation following the design of the WWIDP. Foreign donors have
funded the project.
Despite their few examples of attempts to replicate the WWIDP, the
evaluation team is convinced that the project is highly replicable.
Although initial investment costs may be high, these are far
outweighed by the benefits the project creates as has been shown
above. Maintenance costs of the project are minimal and can be
carried out by the beneficiaries while water is gravity-fed and
available 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. The project can
therefore be replicated not only in locally and in other parts of
Kenya but in other countries where terrain similar to that of the
project area can be found.
