When the Eldoret Water and Sanitation Company began working with The Nature Conservancy two years ago to launch Kenya’s second Water Fund in the Rift Valley, their goal was clear: secure a clean and abundant water supply for its customers in Eldoret City and the broader Iten municipality amidst growing urbanization and climate impacts that threatened local forests, rivers, streams and wetlands.
Today, data collected through both drone and on-the-ground monitoring shows the Eldoret-Iten Water Fund is well on its way to achieving that goal. Aerial photos reveal super napier grass cuttings taking root along riverbanks, helping to filter sediment before getting into the rivers and clogging waterways downstream. Farmers are seen breaking steep hillsides with grass rows and terraces that prevent soil from washing into rivers below. Drones capture images of rivers flowing cleaner and clearer where these and other nature-based solutions have been implemented.
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Sign up“Monitoring allows us to show the impact of our work,” says Stephen Kibet, Resilient Watersheds Manager with The Nature Conservancy in Kenya. “Photos speak a lot more than words. With the drone images, the Eldoret Water and Sanitation Company now understands how the river looks. They can see images that show patches along the river with no trees or other vegetation. It helps the company make decisions on where we need to implement nature-based solutions to improve water quality.”
And water utility administrators aren’t the only ones motivated by the monitoring data.
Farmers living and working within the 120,000-hectare project area have started to request printouts of drone photos to show their children and grandchildren the positive impact they’re having on the environment.
“When we show the farmers the images of their farms, they are amazed. They say, ‘Wow! So, I can do this! I need to do more of this!’” said Ruth Kimitei, one of 18 local youths who have been engaged by the water fund to pilot drones and capture monitoring data. “Showing these images to the farmers is an inspiration. Most of them, when they see, they get inspired and want to do more of it.”
The monitoring also has revealed some unexpected findings.
Drones operated by Ruth and her colleagues recently captured images of Crested Cranes and Sitatunga antelope, two species that had started to disappear from local wetlands due to expanding human encroachment. Because the cranes and antelope are extremely skittish, it is difficult for human observers to track the animals. But drones can fly over the newly restored marshes, snapping photos without a sound.
“With the drones, we’ve been able to identify where the antelope and the cranes live and, in some cases, where the cranes have their nests,” Kibet said. “That is really very helpful in the sense that we can now know where we can protect their habitats.”
In another surprise finding, drone photos revealed illegal alluvial gold mining along the river that was polluting waters with runoff and debris. After local authorities were alerted, the destructive mining operation was shut down.
"Monitoring allows us to show the impact of our work. Photos speak a lot more than words."
Eldoret’s population is expanding by about 25,000 people a year, making it one of the fastest growing cities in Kenya.
While the Eldoret Water and Sanitation Company produces about 43 million liters of water a day, demand is 65 million liters.
Along with growing demand, Eldoret’s rapid urbanization as well as climate change are putting the rivers, wetlands, and other natural systems that supply water to local communities at risk. As the city expands, farming is being pushed into remote areas, threatening cloud forests that produce and store water. Farmers are planting crops and grazing cattle on steeper and steeper slopes, causing soil to erode and clog rivers and streams. Growing demand for charcoal and lumber is destroying forests that filter and clean water supplies. Droughts are shrinking rivers while runoff from flash floods degrades water quality.
Unfortunately, Eldoret and Iten are not unique. Nearly half of all drinking water sources across the globe are degraded. And water scarcity is only getting worse. The UN estimates that 40% of the world’s population could face freshwater shortages by 2030.
Nature-based solutions, such as those being implemented at the Eldoret-Iten Water Fund, offer some of the most effective – and least expensive – strategies to protect water sources amidst growing climate impacts and human development. According to a recent study by The Nature Conservancy, nature-based solutions can reduce the risk of floods and droughts in one-third of the places across the globe where flood and drought are expected to increase due to climate change.
Healthy forests, for example, store water and stabilize soils, helping communities reduce flood risks while also securing water supplies. Removing invasive plant species that sap water – and replacing them with native plants that reduce soil runoff – improves both water quality and quantity.
Investing in nature-based solutions can save municipalities and utility companies millions of dollars by reducing the need to chemically treat polluted water supplies or dredging water intakes and pipelines clogged by sediment.
Studies have shown that nature-based solutions can be up to five times more cost effective than conventional engineered solutions, particularly when factoring in additional benefits such as improved wildlife habitat, flood risk reduction, and healthier soils.
After seeing first-hand the value of nature-based solutions at the Eldoret-Iten water fund, the Eldoret Water and Sanitation Company recently approved a new operating budget that directs $465,000 to watershed conservation activities over the next five years – the first time the company has officially designated conservation as an operating expense.
And it’s not just happening in Kenya. This story of increased investment in nature is playing out across the continent and around the world. A new report from TNC and Forest Trends confirmed a growing global confidence in nature-based solutions for water security. Such investments doubled over the decade studied, reaching $49 billion in 2023. Africa was the fastest-growing region for investment with funding increasing five times from $57 million in 2013 to $288 million in 2023.
While science shows that nature-based solutions could provide cost-effective strategies to secure water in four out of five cities, less than one percent of water sector funding is invested in leveraging the power of nature.
The Nature Conservancy is working with early adopters including corporations, funders (such as The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)), government agencies and utilities like the Eldoret Water and Sanitation Company to mainstream nature-based solutions into their operations.
Effectively monitoring these projects builds the data needed to engage other stakeholders and expand nature-based solutions to more places around the world.
Indeed, the monitoring data collected at the Eldoret-Iten Water Fund is inspiring nearby communities who are looking for ways to protect their own water supplies.
“From what we learned from Eldoret-Iten, it made us now think of establishing a River Yala-Nyando Water Fund,” said Alfayo Lel, Managing Director of the Kapsabet-Nandi Water and Sanitation Company in the neighboring Nandi County. “We are developing our strategic plan for the next 5 years, and the data that has come [from Eldoret-Iten] has changed our strategic direction in terms of where investment should go. It’s telling us that nature-based solutions are working and it’s where we should focus our resources.”
Lel added: “This data needs to be easily available so that it can be shared at all the platforms within the water sector. If this data is accessed, I believe the adoption of this strategy will work in the whole country.”
The Eldoret-Iten Water Fund uses a variety of strategies – including drone photography, in-person interviews, mobile phone surveys, and field observations – to monitor progress.
The work begins when staff sit down with farmers to develop Farm Specific Action Plans (FSAPs) that identify where and how nature-based solutions can be implemented – such as planting native trees along riverbanks, creating terraces along hillsides, or installing water pans to capture rainfall. Field assistants then regularly check on the farms to monitor progress, ensuring conservation strategies are being implemented properly and identifying any additional actions that may be needed.
Drones have proven particularly effective for monitoring because the vast size and rough terrain of the project area make it difficult and time-consuming for staff to venture into remote areas.
“It’s one of the cheapest ways to collect data within a large area and within a short time,” said Allan Tuwei, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Officer with the Water Fund. “I’m able to detect the impact of the interventions that we have recommended the farmers to do, so the photos of before and after are able to guide us and tell us if we’re actually heading in the right direction…. With the images, we are confident that what we’ve given the farmers is working.”
Drones also snap photos and deliver information in real time so project leads can address immediate challenges. In one case, following heavy rains, drones were able to immediately identify flooded areas where staff then worked quickly with farmers to plant native trees to reduce future flood risks.
In addition to gathering vital data that allows project leads to track progress and adapt to changing conditions, monitoring is bringing another benefit to Eldoret and Iten: career opportunities.
College and high school students from across the region are learning how to pilot the monitoring drones. The Water Fund, which ensured young women were recruited along with young men paid for the students to take six months of courses and receive their pilot licenses. The piloting skills have not only proved vital to the success of the Water Fund but also have caught the attention of local businesses.
“Already, two of the young people have found jobs with large companies,” said TNC’s Kibet. “What is exciting for me is the fact that we’ve empowered youths who are from the local village and now they are able to do very technical monitoring work. It has become a source of income to them.”
The young pilots say that along with learning new technical skills, they are gaining new insights into their community and themselves.
“The interaction with the farmers is awesome. You get to learn so many things each day – what they do, how they are so passionate in doing it. I am taking home some good lessons from the farmers,” said Kimitei. “I love what I'm doing and I want to do more. What I aspire most is to visit different places and see how people do conservation in different ways.”
While drone photography has proven the most effective monitoring strategy at the Eldoret-Iten Water Fund, monitoring must be localized to the specific challenges, goals, communities, and geographical circumstances of different projects.
At the Greater Cape Town Water Fund in South Africa, for example, The Nature Conservancy worked with partners to create an online Decision Support System that serves as a centralized management tool, tracking the field operations of the program’s numerous partners and the conservation progress being made. In Ecuador, one of the monitoring strategies used by the Quito water fund – known as Fondo Para la Protección del Agua (FONAG) – was to hire community park rangers who regularly surveil and monitor the program’s 48,000 hectares. And in Colombia, the Manizales Water Fund installed two automated hydro-meteorological stations that track in real-time such things as rainfall, streamflow, and sediment concentrations, providing critical insight into watershed behavior particularly in response to extreme weather events driven by climate change.
“These examples demonstrate the value of tailored monitoring systems,” said Carlos Andrés Rogéliz Prada, Technical Director of the Nature for Water Facility at The Nature Conservancy. “Monitoring systems must be adapted to address specific regional challenges, leveraging partnerships and innovative technologies to improve watershed management outcomes.”
The Nature Conservancy has developed a variety of tools that can help communities and project developers identify which monitoring strategies will work best for them.
The Resilient Watersheds Toolbox includes case studies, online trainings, templates, a library of resources, and step-by-step guidance on how to design, launch, and monitor water funds and other watershed investment programs using nature-based solutions.
The Conservancy also created a Primer for Monitoring Water Funds that outlines the strengths and weaknesses of various monitoring strategies and how to determine which is best for a project.
And for those who need more support, Nature for Water, a partnership managed by The Nature Conservancy and Pegasys, provides hands-on technical support needed to get new watershed investment programs off the ground and help ensure they thrive long into the future.
Monitoring at the Eldoret-Iten Water Fund is giving local farmers and project leads hope – not just for their community but for others across the country and the world.
“It’s very exciting. The evidence we’re collecting is an opportunity to share the success of the work we’re doing with other communities and partners,” said Kibet. “Seeing the photos of the wetlands and how they are becoming healthier gives me a lot of hope.”
Drone pilot Kimitei said she is proud the monitoring data she is collecting will continue to bring benefits well into the future.
“We are doing good being part of drone technology and being part of conservation,” she said. “We are doing it for the next generation, not for us, but to safeguard our next generation.”
