The money, channelled through the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), will address governance and financial challenges that have rendered most of the 30 registered WRUAs in the region inactive.
WRUAs and CFAs are community-based legal entities recognised by the government to conserve water catchments and protect water sources.
However, they have not been able to adequately fulfil their mandates and, despite their existence, human activities such as encroachment and illegal water abstraction continue.
WRUA national chairperson Julius Kiriinya said the funds would, among other things, support the deployment of conservation scouts, noting that government agencies have failed to enforce existing laws enacted to protect water sources.
'We continue to witness massive encroachment on riparian areas in the Ewaso Ngro Basin, such as farming, construction of structures and establishment of car garages, all of which have a negative impact on the flow of the river,' Mr Kiriinya said.
The WRUA official noted that more than 100 rivers in the country have dried up in the last 40 years and if harmful human activities are not curbed and people continue to blame climate change, it will be a matter of time before the remaining 66 rivers also dry up.
In recent years, there has been massive lobbying for the conservation of the Ewaso Ng'iro River, the main source of water in semi-arid northern Kenya, which is fed by tributaries from the Mt Kenya and Aberdare forests.
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