Economics of Rainwater Harvesting in Semi-Arid East Africa

This study analysed four water harvesting system in relation to crop productivity:  - Macro-catchment systems  - Macro-catchment systems linked with road drainage  - Rainwater harvesting with storage ponds  - Micro-catchment  system. Rainwater harvesting from macro-catchments describes the utilisation of rainwater in an area apart from the rainfall area. The road drainage system is used for the removal and disposal of water from the surface as well as subsurface water.Storage  ponds are ponds or pools designed with additional storage capacity to attenuate surface runoff during rainfall events. Microcatchment water harvesting systems  are designed to trap and collect runoff from a relatively small catchment area, usually (10 – 500 m2) within the farm boundary. The runoff water is guided into an application area where it accumulates in holes, pits, basins and bunds
doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2005.07.005