LESSONS LEARNT

Balancing Economic And Environmental Benefits

It is well known that communities usually cause damage to the environment out of basic necessity. A double-pronged approach as evidenced in the Wei Wei Integrated Development Project is critical for both success and sustainability. Communities get motivated to participate in a project if there are some tangible benefits to be derived from such participation. Project beneficiaries in Sigor have realised major socio-economic benefits and this has encouraged them to get fully involved in the project. Environmental conservation came as a second benefit and has therefore been readily accepted. If conservation of the environment had been emphasized right from the beginning, project results could have been completely different from what they are today.

Building on Indigenous Knowledge and Practices

An important lesson from the project is that projects that build on indigenous knowledge and practices stand a better chance of scoring success. The WWIDP recognised that local people had a long tradition of growing crops using irrigation and intervened to improve on irrigation. If the project had been introduced in an area with no irrigation tradition, the impact of the project might not have been as phenomenal as is the case today.

Taking Advantage of Local Conditions

Project implementers took advantage of the fast flowing Wei Wei River and the slope in the river valley to introduce gravity-fed irrigation system. The system supplies water to farmers for irrigation 24 hours a day and 365 days per year. It requires little or no maintenance costs and this is a distinct strength for the system that enhances sustainability of project activities and benefits.

CONCLUSIONS

The WWIDP project is an extremely innovative and successful project that has created immense biophysical, economic and social benefits for both project beneficiaries and the local community. The project is sustainable and the technological innovations introduced in the project area can be readily replicated not only in other districts of Kenya but even in other countries.