Planting the Rain: How Nakivale Is Banking Water to Defy Drought

In Nakivale, farmers are waiting for the rain.

For many farming households in the settlement, the planting season depends on one thing they cannot control: when the rains arrive.

But this year, the wait has become particularly difficult.

According to observations from the communities we work with, there has been little to no meaningful rainfall since April, leaving farmers waiting through May, June, July, and now August for enough rain to begin planting.

Seeds are ready.

Fields are waiting.

Farmers are watching the sky.

But the rain has not come.

For households that depend heavily on agriculture, this is not simply a delay in the farming calendar. It can mean delayed planting, reduced growing seasons, food shortages, and increased pressure on household incomes.

And this is exactly why the way we manage rain matters.

We need to become better at keeping the rain when it comes.

From Waiting for Rain to Banking Rain

When I attended the Resilience Design Training-of-Trainers at Lok Neno with the wonderful Thomas Cole, Warren Brush, and their team, something shifted in the way I looked at water and our landscapes.

I came back to Nakivale asking a different question:

What if we stop asking when the rain will come and start asking: what can we do with it when it does?

Since then, UNIDOS Social Innovation Center has started implementing the Resilience Design approach with 100 participants in Nakivale, many of whom depend on farming to feed their families and earn an income.

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  Participants preparing their double dug RD planting beds. Credit: UNIDOS
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  Participants prepare to add soil amendments to the planting beds. Credit: UNIDOS

This feels especially important right now. Farmers here are watching the sky, waiting for enough rain to plant, while long dry periods are making farming increasingly uncertain.

We are learning together how to receive, slow, spread, sink, and store rainwater instead of allowing it to quickly leave the landscape.

This is what we mean by “Planting the Rain.”

Planting the Rain

Using the Resilience Design approach to hydrological stabilization, we:

• SLOW: Reduce the speed at which water moves across the land.

• SPREAD: Distribute water rather than allowing it to concentrate into destructive flows.

• SINK: Create conditions that allow water to infiltrate into the soil.

• SAVE: Keep that moisture within the landscape for as long as possible.

We put these principles into practice using simple tools like A-frame levels; water harvesting techniques like contour lines, swales, berms, and basins; and soil-building practices such as diversity of mulches and biofertilizers to build healthy soil.

The goal is not to stop water. The goal is to help water do more before it leaves the site.

For me, one of the most exciting ideas is seeing soil differently: not simply as something plants grow in but as a living water bank. When we build organic matter and life in the soil, we create more opportunities for water to stay where it is needed.

Why This Matters in Nakivale

In Nakivale, a home to more than 200,000 families, farming is not simply an economic activity. For many households, it is directly connected to food, income, nutrition, and survival.

When the rains are delayed, the consequences can move quickly through the household:

Delayed rain → Delayed planting → Shorter growing season → Lower harvest → Less food → Higher household pressure

This is why climate resilience cannot only mean helping farmers produce more when conditions are good. It must also mean helping them prepare for difficult conditions.

That means asking questions like:

• How much rain falls on our land?

• How quickly does it runoff?

• How much rain could our soils capture?

• How can we reduce erosion?

• How can we protect crops during dry periods?

• How can we make better use of the water we already receive?

Answering these questions and designing site context-specific solutions using RD can strengthen Nakivale farmers’ resilience to climate shocks and stresses.

From Knowledge to Action

Through the Resilience Design Approach, UNIDOS is training local practitioners across Juru, Basecamp, Kiretwa, and Ruhoko.

Through our “Hoe in Hand” approach, participants learn directly from the landscape.

They Walk the water → Map the land → Build → Observe → Adapt → Improve

The aim is to create local knowledge that remains in the community long after a training session ends.

More than 100 local practitioners have already been trained across four communities.

“Before the training, I did not know these techniques. I learned how to prepare manure, how to plant vegetables properly, and how to make small basins, half-moons and berms around trees so that water can stay longer in the soil. Now I feel confident that I can use these techniques in my own garden and improve the survival and productivity of my crops.”

For Uwizeyimana Valentine, the training changed the way she thinks about water, soil, and food production.

These were not simply new techniques she learned. They changed the way she understood the relationship between rain and the land.

Instead of allowing rainfall to quickly run away from the garden, she learned how simple landscape structures can help slow water down, spread it, and allow more of it to infiltrate into the soil.

The Rain Will Come. Are We Ready?

Farmers in Nakivale cannot decide when the clouds will open but we can help communities prepare the land for that moment. When the rain finally arrives, we want it to do more than pass through.

We want it to feed the soil, support crops, recharge the landscape, reduce erosion, and remain available to plants for the dry days ahead. That is what we mean by Planting the Rain – because climate resilience is not only about finding more water, It is about learning to value, capture, and keep every drop we receive.

The rain is already a gift. Our job is to design the landscape so that the gift does not run away.