Mapping Meaning : Critical Cartographies for Participatory Water Management in Taita Hills, Kenya

Participation of local people is often neglected in natural resource management, which leads to failure to understand the social aspects and historical construction of environmental problems. Participatory mapping can enhance the communication of local spatial knowledge for management processes and challenge the official maps and other spatial representations produced by state authorities and scientists. In this study, we analyze what kind of social meanings can be revealed through a multimethod participatory mapping process focusing on water resources in Taita Hills, Kenya. The participatory mapping clearly complicates the simplified image of the physical science mappings, typically depicting natural water supply, by addressing the impacts of contamination, inadequate infrastructure, poverty, distance to the sources, and restrictions in their uses on people's access to water. Moreover, this shared exercise is able to trigger discussion on issues that cannot always be localized but still contribute to place making. Local historical accounts reveal the social and political drivers of the current water-related problems, making explicit the political ecology dynamics in the area.Peer reviewe

Drought management in the drylands of Kenya: what have we learned?

The countries of the Horn of Africa face shared regional challenges to enhance proactive management of drought hazards. These include financing challenges to reduce reliance on emergency relief aid, as well as needs to enhance the use of information to trigger interventions and learn from implementation experiences. This chapter reflects on a decade of experience gained in building institutional capacity for drought management and preparedness in the Kenyan arid lands during 2008–18. It reviews lessons learned and their significance for the wider region. It concludes that to end drought emergencies by 2022 will require the use of participatory scientific methods and capacities to monitor, model, and manage the hydrological systems in the arid and semi-arid lands. This is needed urgently as growing economic water demand and extractions may already exceed predicted increases in precipitation and the costs of hydrological droughts are increasing