The Tana Catchment in Kenya straddles across four administrative provinces, namely: Central, Eastern, North Eastern and Coast. A greater part of the catchment is semi-arid implying high levels of water scarcity and high potetial for water use conflicts. Coupled with variable weather patterns and erratic rainfall, this region experiences frequent droughts and floods.



Map: Tana Basin, Kenya

Activities of the Tana Catchment area are coordinated by Water Resources Management Authority from its regional office in Embu. The major achievement of the Authority has been the developmnent of Catchment Management Strategies (CMSs) which was the first of the six catchment to be developed.

The Water Sector reform process in Kenya that culminalated in the Water Act 2002, alongside the GTZ, that partners with the IWMNet, Water Sector Reform Programme, two subcatchments (Bwathonaro and Ngaciuma-Kinyaritha) were selected as pilot areas. Consequently, IWMNet that is capacity building in Integrated watershed management strengthens the implementation of the reforms by having the same sub-catchment as its pilot sites. (PDF Tana CMS)

General Background on Bwathonaro and Ngaciuma-Kinyaritha Sub-Catchments
Bwathonaro is located in Meru North District while Ngaciuma-kinyaritha is in Imenti North District, both in Eastern Province of Kenya. Within the sub catchments IWMNet does trainings in partnership with other organization and institutions in terms of short courses both for the Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA) and Water Resources Users Associations (WRUA) that have enable the development of both the Catchment Management plan and  sub-Catchment Management plans. The Tana Catchment Management Plan born out of this initiative has been used by Water Resources Management Authority as a template to develop Catchment Management Plans for the other Catchments in Kenya. More so, through the MSc. Programme supported by IWMNet at Kenyatta University, students have conducted several researches in the catchment and disseminated the findings to the local people thus increasing awareness and integrative management.