He said it is difficult for one institution to prioritize and accomplish such feat with limited financial resources adding that resource collaborations could maximize outcomes and improve on the related environmental challenges.

Mr Aduna said degradation close to river sources that depleted forest covers were increasingly becoming a worrying trend amidst climate variations adding that the Commission needed collaborated efforts to arrest the degrading situation.

He said even though WRC may not have the required resources to fully address challenges of water resources, its role was key in providing technical knowledge and advice on many interventions in place now as ways to address depleted tree cover, degraded water resources among others to ensure sustained use of water resources.

In response to how government  implementation of the “Youth in afforestation programme” could support to address the degraded water resource areas, the Basin Officer expressed gratitude to government for instituting the programme and recommended the involvement of all stakeholders to help identify critical areas for some of the project interventions.

Mr Aduna said water institutions have different interests in the use of water and increased collaboration with the WRC could enhance knowledge and ways to sustain water use under the “one village one dam”.

The Basin Coordinator gave the assurance that even though the basin in totality was not water stressed, temporal and spatial distributions were challenges, hence the need to adopt integrated approach in the management and use of water resources.