By Job Weru
Gloom rather than hope trickled out as the World Water Day was internationally marked on Sunday.
In many parts of the country, the irony of reaping colossal amounts of money from businesses that kill priceless water resources rang out.
In Mt Kenya region, a survey by The Standard shows that flower farms rake in a big portion of the Sh170 billion a year floriculture industry. The earnings have, however, ensured terminal dangers to formerly gushing rivers that rose from Mt Kenya and Aberdares.
The Government appears to look the other way as peasants of affected regions cry foul at the diversions made to water courses and attendant pollution of major rivers.
The scenario is replicated elsewhere in the country where floriculture has taken root.
Rivers in Mt Kenya region that have been reduced into dry beds include Timau, Ontulili, Sirimon, Likii, Nanyuki, Barguret, Naro Moru, Rongai, Kongoni and other small streams.
Dried up
Teleswan is among rivers that have dried up as horticulture farms and projects draw water. Recent developments indicate it is a matter of time before main rivers
Elephants dig a dry riverbed in Samburu to find water. Photo: Lucas Thuo/Standard |
Apart from people, livestock and wild animals are all in danger of perishing due to lack of water. The negative impact of the amount of water being diverted to flowers and vegetables grown under plastic, has spread all the way to Samburu Game Reserve, where animals are foraging for water over dry ground as rivers dry.
"Flower farms and water projects are draining our rivers. We can’t wait to die when rivers are diverted to the farms," says Mr Martin Wambugu from Naibor, Laikipia.
Hectares of land along the Kiganjo-Meru route are under irrigated horticulture, while thousands of people, who rely on water from these rivers, face a bleak future.
"The Government is not committed to arresting the crisis. Why are farms still irrigating while we are suffering? We do not have a drop to drink, let alone bathe," said Councillor Eric Kasana from Il’Digiri ward, Laikipia North District.
Mr Kasana says primary schools, especially Kimanjo and Ewaso risk being closed due to lack of water. Many rivers have now been reduced to mere trickles. The worst hit are those that host expansive flower farms.
In this region, many rivers converge into the grand Ewaso Nyiro, which flows to Isiolo, Samburu, Marsabit and other areas in northern Kenya.
Seventy per cent of the waters of the Ewaso Nyiro River come from Mt Kenya. This river provides life to thousands of people and livestock.
Thousands of wild animals and their habitat in Isiolo and Samburu Game Reserve are in danger.
The Standard team witnessed elephants trying to dig through the dry riverbed to find water, while other animals try to share the water after the elephants dig it up.
Without the flow of water from Mt Kenya, Samburu Game Reserve could soon be history.
Mr Amos Ekal, a committee member with a local river water users association, says more than 100,000 people and millions of livestock and wild game downstream face death.
Looming catastrophe is death or an exodus of game from Samburu National Reserve and the thousands of others that roam freely through these pastoralist regions.
Ekal says that in some areas where rivers still flow, locals compete for water in pools which have been contaminated by cattle and elephant dung.
But Ewaso Nyiro North Water Resources Management Authority Manager Maitima M’Mukindia defended large scale farmers, and blamed small-scale outgrowers of uncontrolled abstraction.
"All farms closed their intakes three months ago. They now rely on their reservoirs and I can confirm this since we usually inspect them," said M’Mukindia.
M’Mukindia said water levels in the region, which comprises more than 20 districts in northern Kenya, were alarmingly low, adding that "even if we close all community water projects in the region, Ewaso Nyiro River will still not have large volumes of water".
River water users associations, which are formed under the Water Act 2003 and are constituted of beneficiaries, are charged with regulating water usage.
Big cartels
But Mr M’Mukindia laments that they have turned into cartels, which serve interests of particular groups.
"They are no longer useful in water regulation. They mind about a group of people and disregard other users downstream, who suffer a lot in case of water shortage," said the manager.
But evidence on the ground is different. Along the Nanyuki-Doldol Road, Nanyuki-Matanya and Ichuga areas, scores of youths are evident, water jerricans strapped to their bicycles.
The youth fetch water from rivers and pipes in Nanyuki town and sell to residents.
"I am doing roaring business, although I am also affected. I earn an average of Sh300 to Sh500 a day," said Mr Michael Muchangi, a water hawker.
And as the residents suffere scarcity of water downstream, the flower farms upstream spend days and nights irrigating farms.
The national turnover in horticulture and floriculture is estimated at more than Sh170 billion a year. This agricultural sub-sector is the second biggest foreign income-earner after tourism. In Timau area, we found farmers irrigating farms as early as noon.
Mr Joseph Ngamu, the chairman of Muteithia Water Project, accused some farms of undermining local River Water Users Associations’ decisions to irrigate in shifts.
"The shifts help ensure that all get water but some upstream projects do not enforce our desires," said Ngamu.
Laikipia North DC Amos Mariba said water scarcity was a danger to residents, who also face starvation from famine.
"This is like adding salt to injury. About 80 per cent of locals are hungry, but yet again, there is also no water," said Mr Mariba.
—Additional information by As You Like It Safaris
