Kenya

Small reservoirs are increasingly common across Africa. They provide decentralised access to water and support farmer-led irrigation, in addition to contributing towards mitigating the impacts of climate change. Water quality monitoring is essential to ensure the safe use of water and to understand the impact of the environment and land use on water quality. However, water quality in small reservoirs is often not monitored continuously, with the interlinkages between weather, land, and water remaining unknown. Turbidity is a prime indicator of water quality that can be assessed with remote sensing techniques. Here we modelled turbidity in 34 small reservoirs in central Kenya with Sentinel-2 data from 2017 to 2023 and predicted turbidity outcomes using primary and secondary Earth observation data, and machine learning. We found distinct monthly turbidity patterns. Random forest and gradient boosting models showed that annual turbidity outcomes depend on meteorological variables, topography, and land cover (R2 = 0.46 and 0.43 respectively), while longer-term turbidity was influenced more strongly by land management and land cover (R2 = 0.88 and 0.72 respectively). Our results suggest that shortand longer-term turbidity prediction can inform reservoir siting and management. However, inter-annual variability prediction could benefit from more knowledge of additional factors that may not be fully captured in commonly available geospatial data. This study contributes to the relatively small body of remote sensing-based research on water quality in small reservoirs and supports improved small-scale water management.

The issue of quality in developing small-scale irrigation projects (SSIPs) in Sub-Saharan countries has become a concern. This necessitated the development of a quality management system (QMS) toolkit covering all phases of irrigation project development. The current toolkit was developed to provide guidance and support to establish a robust system that aligns with irrigated agriculture development best practices, standards and regulatory requirements. Literature from the three focal countries – Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda – was reviewed and stakeholder consultations, field visits and focus group discussions were conducted to learn lessons and gain insight to enrich the proposed parameters and checklists. Based on the lessons learned, the QMS toolkit was created, including a comprehensive set of guidelines, checklists, tools, resources, forms and templates that can help irrigation agencies and stakeholders at all levels implement and maintain an effective quality management system. It is an essential tool for organizations such as irrigation and agriculture ministries, regional bureaus and county offices to assess and improve their performance by meeting quality requirements, standards, regulations and specifications. The toolkit is prepared in two volumes. Volume II is a series of checklists of key parameters that need to be considered when implementing an irrigation quality management system. The checklists cover the first three phases and associated stages, components and subcomponents of an irrigation development process. These checklists will aid in streamlining quality management review processes and ensure consistency in quality control practices. By following the checklists in this volume, irrigation implementing agencies (IAs), organizations and project managers can ensure that each task is completed correctly and in compliance with established procedures, guidelines, methodologies, standards and technical specifications. Volume II also provides QMS workflow charts for each phase and stage of an irrigation project, which serve as quality control mechanisms that track whether tasks and services provided are fully completed and adhere to specified standards. This volume also contains proposed institutional arrangements for implementing a QMS initiative. These arrangements include a generic organogram, human resource requirements and job descriptions for key positions within the proposed QMS implementation team. Volume II includes the following three annexes: - Annex II-1 QMS forms and templates for pre-construction phases - Annex II-2 Forms and templates for project implementation and construction phase - Annex II-3 Annotated Terms of Reference (ToRs) for pre-construction phases

The issue of quality in developing small-scale irrigation projects in Sub-Saharan countries has become a concern. This necessitated the development of a quality management system (QMS) toolkit covering all phases of irrigation project development. The current toolkit was developed to provide guidance and support to establish a robust system that aligns with irrigated agriculture development best practices, standards and regulatory requirements. Literature from the three focal countries – Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda – was reviewed and stakeholder consultations, field visits and focus group discussions were conducted to learn lessons and gain insight to enrich the proposed parameters and checklists. Based on the lessons learned, the QMS toolkit was created, including a comprehensive set of guidelines, checklists, tools, resources, forms and templates that can help irrigation agencies and stakeholders at all levels implement and maintain an effective quality management system. It is an essential tool for organizations such as irrigation and agriculture ministries, regional bureaus and county offices to assess and improve their performance by meeting quality requirements, standards, regulations and specifications. The toolkit is prepared in two volumes. Volume I covers the reasoning behind the toolkit, its goals and scope, and provides guidelines on how to use the toolkit. It also includes the organization of the toolkit and defines the terminology used. Further, it provides the approach and methods employed and findings obtained during toolkit development.

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have identified small-scale irrigation development as a priority to ensure food security and improve agricultural production. However, they have encountered challenges related to inadequate planning, study, design and inferior-quality construction of irrigation infrastructure. To bridge these quality gaps, the concept of developing a quality management system (QMS) toolkit was initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The objective of the toolkit is to establish a management framework that directs and controls small-scale irrigation development processes in SSA as per contractual requirements, quality standards and governing regulations to ensure quality outputs in all development phases.; Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda were chosen as focal countries. Two approaches were employed to develop the toolkit. A literature review on quality management practices in irrigation development within the focal countries and global experiences was conducted to learn lessons and identify parameters that have key roles in quality management practices. This was followed by case studies and analyses of irrigation development practices in each focal country through stakeholder consultations, project site observations and focus group discussions. Based on the findings, a toolkit with a comprehensive set of guidelines, checklists, templates and resources was developed.; The toolkit is presented in two volumes. Volume I is the toolkit guidelines, which cover the goals and scope of the toolkit along with details of the approaches employed and the findings from the development process. It also presents the proposed checklists, tools, templates and forms. It briefly explains how to use them to conduct quality management in small-scale irrigation project (SSIP) development.; Volume II includes the key parameters and to-do lists segregated by development phases, stages, components and subcomponents of the SSIP development process. It also includes proposed institutional arrangements for implementing the QMS initiative by the focal countries. Furthermore, a user-friendly webpage was developed to allow for quick access to various additional open-source resources, including guidelines, standards and best practices. The toolkit aims to help governments and other implementers introduce an effective quality management system in the irrigation development process adapted to country-specific irrigation regulations and standards. For effective implementation of the toolkit, the commitment of the implementing organizations, institutionalizing quality management in project development and regular capacity building of implementing agents are recommended.