Wild edible plants (WEPS) are an important source of nutrients and income particularly to poor households. However, information on how WEPS contribute to rural livelihoods varies due to heterogeneous methodologies and settings. This paper is based on a study that investigated the contribution of WEPs on rural livelihoods in semiarid Kondoa District, Dodoma Region, Tanzania. Mixed methods were used to collect data from 343 households (14.32%), comprising six focus group discussions and six key informant interviews with district officials. Findings show that whereas 97% of households use WEPs more on subsistence basis, 8.2% use it for income generation. Income generated from WEPs accounted for about 9.16% of household income, which is somewhat closely to other sources. More or less, prices are even higher than those of corn when compared with national figures. However, income generated from sale of WEPs, though substantial, is less accounted for in household capital assets, rather than satisfying the household's basic requirements. Thus, there is a need to recognize the role of WEPs to rural livelihoods in reducing vulnerability to food insecurity and developing interventions that can improve access to use and management of natural resources.
Access to clean and safe fresh water remain a challenge to many developing countries. Provision of fresh water both in terms of quantity and quality is a source of, and the condition for, a socio-economic development. Local communities in the coastal areas of Pangani district, Tanzania have already felt and are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and variability. This paper assesses the effects of climate change and variability on access to fresh water resources for domestic uses. Drawing from a sample of 109 respondents, 11 key informant interviews, three focus group discussions and observations from Bweni, Msaraza and Pangani Mashariki villages in Pangani district the fi ndings revealed that climate change and variability has negative impacts on the quantity and quality of fresh water resources in the area. Among the impact of climate change and variability on fresh water resources include rainfall decrease and variability, prolonged drought, an increase of salinity in Pangani River and natural wells. Th ese impacts have led to scarcity of fresh water in the district resulting into the increase of walking distances to the fresh water sources, increase of water prices, and opting for unsafe sources. To adapt to the impacts of climate change and variability people in Pangani district have opted to rainwater harvesting, construction of boreholes and dams and planting mangroves to reduce salinity intrusion. Participation of different stakeholders (governments, NGOs, communities) in the design and implementation of adaptation strategies to reduce impacts of climate change and variability and improve fresh water sources is recommended.
Globally, climate change triggers flooding through unpredictable, intermittent and incessant precipitation. Flooding in Nairobi is multi-factorial in causation. This has raised the question of necessary interventions in the design of urban settlements in order to reduce the impacts of extreme rainfall events that result in floods. This paper seeks to analyse the reciprocal correlation between settlement planning and pluvial flooding in Nairobi. Census data were obtained from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and daily rainfall records from the Kenya Meteorological Department spanning from 1961 to 2018. Other key parameters were drawn from extensive thematic content analyses of the existing literature. The data were subjected to trend and correlation analyses using the Stata software to determine patterns and possible causal relationships. The results showed that there was an insignificant but positive relationship between the two variables with Pearson and Spearman coefficients of correlation of 0.211 and 0.111, respectively. The results of this study repudiate the perceived notion that occurrences of pluvial flooding in Nairobi have increased due to erratic precipitation patterns and improper planning of settlements. The null hypothesis is therefore upheld at 95% confidence level.
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