Michael Paul Maluki

Roads are a major global investment and a main factor for development. When road infrastructure is correctly designed and constructed, it provides an enormous opportunity for economic transformation, improved agricultural production, climate resilience and livelihoods improvement. The conventional road design and constructions is causing higher maintenance cost, erosion, waterlogging, flooding, dust and crop loss. These negative effects can be turned around and roads made into instruments for rainwater harvesting, food security, improved community livelihoods and climate resilience. In this regard, there is a variety of techniques that can be used to turn conventional roads into green roads; ranging from simple interventions to modified designs. What drives the transformational road construction is a change in governance, collaboration and coordination between road engineers, water practioners, agricultural officers and interaction with the local communities during road design, construction and maintenance. This abstract provides evidence from Makueni County, where road runoff water harvesting has systematically been introduced since 2017. The abstract describes the process of promoting road water harvesting, the techniques used, the potential of road water harvesting to increase resilience and the hydrological and socio-economic effects. There is a strong case for road infrastructure to serve as water management instruments and to see roads as an integral part of the watershed and landscape in which they are situated. Such an integral approach will preserve road infrastructure and reduce the maintenance burden, contributing to greater infrastructure productivity. The approaches include cut-off from side drains, diversion from culvert, gravel borrow-pits, farm ponds/pans, roadside tree planting, non-vented drifts/road crossings, gully prevention and reclamation and locally-led practices.

Keywords: Green roads, road water harvesting, _{climate resilience, waterlogging, road runoff, Localy-led,Non vented drift.}