Abstract: The study investigated factors enhancing land use development and management for rehabilitated Namasanda small dam in Kanduyi Sub County of Bungoma County. This research investigation showed that the general utilization of the dam water by the community for growing crops was less than 40% which was low compared to over 40% used by the community for other social economic activities like livestock keeping and fish farming. In this study, the community’s capacity in terms of knowledge, material, monetary, organizational etc; and the community’s skill in terms of training, experience etc. in dam development and management were interrogated to determine how these factors influence land use from the rehabilitated dam. The social economic benefits that are derived from dam rehabilitation like livestock keeping, fish farming, water for cleaning/washing etc. were also interrogated to determine how they contribute to the social economy of the community resulting from the rehabilitation activities of the dam. Other factors including Government regulations, politics, funding, subsidies etc. were also studied to determine their influence on land use and the social economy of the community around Namasanda dam. The study adopted descriptive research survey. The sampling procedure was by simple random sampling approach and the data collection method involved use of questionnaires, interview schedules, observations, taking of photographs and document analysis. The data collected was cross tabulated with land use activities and were measured as low for land use below 0.25acres, moderate for land use between 0.25 to 0.5 acres and high for land use of between 0.5 to 1.0 acres or greater. The social economic activities derived from the dam activities together with strength and the management capacity of the community were measured as less than 40% for low, 41 – 70% for moderate and over 70% for high utilization. Information on literature review in this study was gathered from books, periodicals, internet and other relevant documents. The findings showed that 90.5% of the community indicated that increasing their capacity through training improved their skills for enhancing land use and other social economic activities. The community also indicated that funding and incentives were necessary for improved land use activities; and that modes of dam rehabilitation measures contributed to enhancing food security and the social economic activities derived from the dam after rehabilitation. The study concluded that building capacity of the community, providing them with funding and incentives contributed significantly to improved land use activities and corresponding social economical benefits that enhance food security from rehabilitation activities of small dams. This study therefore recommends that rehabilitation of small dams should include strengthening the capacity of the community, providing them with incentives and involving them fully in all the project phases. This will enhance land use activities and the accompanying social economic benefits that are derived from dam rehabilitation activities.
Keywords: Factors Enhancing Land, Dam Rehabilitation Activities.
Title: Factors Enhancing Land Use Development and Management for Rehabilitated Namasanda Dam in Bungoma County, Kenya
Author: ANTONY LUVAI MAHASI
International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations
ISSN 2348-7585 (Online)
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