3.2.4. Water Management Practices

From the seven water management practices identified in the study area and presented in Table 6, rainwater harvesting was practiced by most of the households (51.6%). The second most practiced measure was protecting some water sources for use during the dry season with 42.6% of the households reporting the practice. Some households (35.2%) reported making use of small earth dams around their village while another 33.2% resorted to drilling boreholes or wells to access groundwater especially at the "cattle posts". Up to 28% of the households reported rehabilitating water points such as deepening wells. Only 4.2% reported using drip irrigation although this was largely practiced in backyard gardens.


**Table 6.** Water management adaptation strategies used by households in Bobirwa sub-district.

Significance levels: \* *p* < 0.05, \*\* *p* < 0.01, \*\*\* *p* < 0.001. Source: Household Survey Data, 2017.

Figure 5 shows that the highest proportion of households (23.6%) in the study area did not adopt any of the water management practices followed by those who implemented just one practice (22.7%) among the seven measures at their disposal. A proportion of 19.1% and 11% implemented two and three different water management measures, respectively. At least four up to a maximum of seven

different water management practices were implemented by a proportion ranging between 6 and 9% of the households within the last decade.
