Determinants and effectiveness of water conservation techniques in Rukiga highlands in South Western Uganda.

Abstract

Degradation of water resources characterized by decline of water resources is a major constraint to Uganda and the entire world at large. These trends can be reverted through the adoption of effective water resources conservation techniques focusing on water resources restoration. The overall aim of this study was to focus on existing water conservation techniques and develop more suitable sustainable practices which can be used for policy formulation on water resources restoration in Rukiga highlands. We took a cross sectional study using a mixed approach where simple random sampling was used in selection of households and purposive sampling on the key informants. Data was collected through field surveys, interviews, direct field observations and analysed using spss and thematic content analysis were descriptive statistics. The study findings revealed that terracing, tree planting, mulching were the most common techniques of water resources conservation in the area. The determinants of water conservation techniques included age, level of education, topography, relief among others. Topography and level of education were the most influential contributing 31.19% and 17.9% respectively. These influenced adoption of practices like tree planting, mulching, construction of trenches, and use of grassed water ways among others. Tree planting was found to be the most adopted water conservation technique with 24.7% and construction of trenches with 19%. This implied that, continuous promotion of a combination of conservation practices adopted by households would lead to increased participation in conservation of water resources in the study area.