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the local community believes that the project is best for their needs and demand, the
project will fail. In general, reliance on food aid or other incentives to motivate the
local participation is not productive (Reig et al. 1988 ). Many incentives for partici-
pation offered to a local community are meaningless either for social or economic
reasons (Renner and Frasier 1995a).
6.3.4 Appropriate Technology
Water harvesting techniques may be unsuccessful because the systems are deemed
inappropriate for the social environment in the area due to (1) the technical design
being too difficult for farmers to comprehend making it difficult for them to maintain
the structures, or (2) the system is incompatible with patterns of local food produc-
tion, has high labor requirements or relies on machinery. Machinery usually requires
some degree of technical knowledge to maintain and without regular maintenance
will fail. Where a WH project relies on machinery, the system will fail because the
local population or government usually cannot afford the necessary maintenance.
Although WH techniques may be appropriate for certain communities, the sys-
tem may be inappropriate for certain indigenous cultures. In marginal areas, govern-
ments should be aware of the social and environmental implication of introducing
WH projects. Indigenous WH techniques may be more appropriate than introduced
systems. For instance, in Burkina Faso, development project directors decided to
abandon an introduced WH technique and adopt an indigenous technology of con-
structing stone bunds in fields. They improved the microcatchments by building the
bunds on the contour which allowed water to be collected, spread evenly over the
fields and percolate slowly through the bunds (Renner and Frasier 1995a). By modi-
fying the indigenous microcatchment system, they satisfied local environmental
characteristics while increasing crop production. Due to the small scale of micro-
catchments, modification of these traditional systems often augments crop produc-
tion making the technique even more adaptable by the local population (Oweis et al.
2012 ; Mekdaschi and Liniger 2013 ).
Microcatchment water harvesting is an important technique for sustainable agri-
culture in developing countries as long as the important socioeconomic design ele-
ments are incorporated into these systems. Professionals implementing WH systems
should analyze the economic benefits and social acceptability of their projects.
Most scientific research on WH has been primarily technical and has ignored ways
of extending these systems to farmers and communities. Increased research on the
socioeconomic aspects of WH should be performed and widely published. All WH
projects should evaluate and monitor their activities and learn how new technolo-
gies influence socioeconomic factors. If professionals in this field increase their
awareness of the socioeconomic elements of implementing a WH project, more
success will occur in the field and this viable technology will help increase agricul-
tural production while reducing consumption of water resources (Renner and Frasier
1995a; UNEP-SEI 2009 ).
Water Harvesting in Dry Environments