HARVEST MONEY

NEW VISION, Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Money
Maker

19

Turn El-Nino into opportunity

although there is a high
likelihood that irregular
rains might continue up
to February 2016, the
predicted rains are expected
to be near normal to above
normal rainfall all over the
country.
Mujuni advised farmers
to make use of the seasonal
rains by optimising crop
yield through appropriate
land-use management.

By Hope Mafaranga

It had just started raining,

so Charity Mugisha, a
mother of three in Mbarara
district, rushed to her
house and locked herself
in. The rain fell for over
three hours. There was
water running off the roof
of her mabaati house into
the nearby road and further
down the valley.
But then after the rain,
she realised that there was
no water in her house. She
picked her jerrycan and
rushed to a community
well, about 1km away. And
yet, with the seven basins
and five sauce pans in
her house, she could have
harvested enough water to
take her through many days.
However, like in Mugishas
case, people leave rainwater
to go to the swamp and
wells, after rain, they follow
it to the wells and fetch it for
home use.
Rainwater harvesting

Water harvesting is the

collection and concentration
of rainwater or runoff for the
production of crops, pasture
or trees, for livestock or
domestic water supply or for
other productive purposes.
All water harvesting
systems comprise a
catchment area and a
storage component. Storage
can be either short-term
or long-term. Short-term
storage techniques are
usually for crop, fodder,
pasture and tree production,
whereas long-term storage
techniques are for domestic
and livestock use.
The weathermen have
told all and sundry that
the on-going El- Nino
phenomenon will be
following by a long drought.
The El-Nino, therefore will
be opportunity for people
to prepare for the drought
by harvesting the abundant
water that has resulted into
flooding in some areas.
According to statistics,
Uganda receives at least
2,000mm of rainfall per
year. This is one of the

Misused opportunity

what others say about Rainwater harvesting

Beatrice
Komuhimbo
I wish rain
harvesting
could be made
a bylaw. It
saves money
and children from
going to wells. People have
not embraced it maybe
because of piped water but
in villages people need to
be harvesting water.

highest in the region.

The Uganda National
Meteorological Authority
predicts that the 2015-16
El-Nino rains are likely to
strengthen further up to the
end of the year and may
persist to early 2016.
The amount of water
that Uganda receives every
rainy season is sufficient
to last four years if all the
water was harvested,
says agriculturist Dr. Abed
Bwanika, who is also a
presidential candidate.
Bwanika says in countries
like Israel and the Middle-

Sunday
Rusoke
We
grew up
harvesting
water, but
these days
people do
not normally
do it. I implore people
to embrace it because
harvesting water is
cheap.

East where rain is very

scarce, no drop of water
is allowed to go to waste..
When they see rain, they
see gold. You never hear
them running out of water,
Bwanika says.
Opportunities

The commissioner in charge

of disaster preparedness
in the Office of the Prime
Minister, Martin Owor,
said the El- Nio rains are
expected to bring plenty
of water for domestic
and industrial use, power
generation and agricultural

Sarah Kimara
Some people
believe that
rainwater is
contaminated
and, therefore,
avoid it. And
also many
people are
still poor and live in grass
thatched houses. They do
not have containers to
harvest water.

production. He said
countries in Southern Africa
and South Sudan will not
get rain for the next one
year, which he called an
opportunity for Ugandan
farmers to grow enough
food for exportation.
Owor added that the
hydropower dams will
also benefit from the rains
because they are going to
fill-up and will generate
enough power.
The manager data centre,
at the Uganda National
Meteorological Authority,
Godfrey Mujuni, says

Despite Uganda having

experienced El-Nino
in 1997-98, 2010 and
the current 2015-2016,
Ugandans do not seem to
have learnt a lesson.
Jackson Twinomujuni, the
international transboard
water resource officer in
the Ministry of Water and
Environment, said the
country is not ready to take
advantage of the El-Nino.
He said the Government
constructed a few dams and
it is now too late to prepare
for el-Nio.
Ideally, Ugandans should
have constructed ponds in
their farms to tap water for
irrigation, but many do not
have facilities so when the,
rains stop around February
we shall have no water for
irrigation, he added.
According to Twinomujuni,
over 80 districts are
experiencing more rain than
usual and this season was
expected to be the short
rain period, but because of
climate change, it will go up
to February next year. He
also said that due to a shift
in climate change, some
farmers who planted earlier
will lose their crops because
rain will wash them away.
It is easy to harvest water

According to Dr. Jolly

Kabirizi, from the National
Agricultural Research
Organisation, harvesting
water is easy.
There are many simple
technologies that can
be adopted by both
homesteads and farmers
to harvest water, she
says. She explains that

most of the technologies

use local materials, which
makes them cheaper and
easier to adopt. Most of
the technologies depend
on roof and ground runoff
water.
Ideally, roof run off water
can be used for domestic
purposes, including
drinking while ground
run off water can be used
for watering crops, she
says. This means that a
homestead can have two
water reservoirs. As much
as 1,000 litres of water can
be collected from a five bedroom family house in one or
two hours of constant rains.
Fred Bigyema, a farmer
in Kashari, Mbarara,
says farmers should take
advantage of heavy rains
and store water for use
during dry spells.
Bigyema, who has a tank
with a capacity of 30,000
litres said he only needed
sh1m to have it constructed.
He uses the water for
domestic use throughout
the year.

What it takes to
have a tank
Bigyema used two trips
of hardcore stones
which cost sh180,000,
some 10 bags of cement
which cost sh300,000
and a trip of sand that
cost sh50,000. He
spent sh135,000 on
iron sheets and paid
sh355,000 for labour.
Mathias Twisigomwe,
the Rugaaga LC3
chairman in Isingiro
district, said most
people have mabaati
(iron sheets) houses and
all they need is to dig
a pit, according to the
size and capacity one
needs. It should have a
damp-proof membrane,
add a tarpaulin, cover
your tank and this
can cost you less than
sh200,000, he said.

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