Voice of Change: Championing Water Harvesting

Water conservation is rarely only about water. Richard Kamng'oror's leadership journey, shaped by a mix of personal experiences, has put him at the centre of both water and forestry conservation efforts in his community - and his story argues for an approach that starts with people, not pipelines.

A rights-based approach, Richard explains, means asking who is affected by water scarcity first, and building the response around their needs - rather than designing a technical fix and hoping communities adapt to it. That people-first lens has shaped harvesting and conservation work that holds up against an increasingly unpredictable climate, because it was built with the people who rely on that water every day, not around them.

This story is one of seven told by community champions themselves, part of Voices for Change - a partnership between the CGIAR Initiative on Climate Resilience (ClimBeR) and CEMIRIDE exploring how indigenous knowledge and rights-based approaches are already building climate resilience across Kenya's minority and indigenous communities.