By ROBERT NYASATO
Monyangi Nyamisa remembers how she used to dash to the river to fetch water as she grew up.
But today, the only spring in her Milimani Estate home in Kisii County, which was serving about 1,000 people, has dried up.
As a result, she has to buy water from vendors at Sh15 per 20-litre jerrycan, an amount she says is not easy to get given that she requires water for her cow as well.
“It is costly. Scarcity of water has crippled this village because it is now hard to survive without money,” she laments.
Ms Josephine Moraa, who lives in distant Mogoroka village, no longer has enough time for cultivation, because she and her children spend hours looking for water.
She says springs that were relied on as sources of water started drying up about ten years ago and they are now forced to walk longer distances to get the scarce commodity.
Unaware of the culprit
“Most of the water sources are only useful during the rainy season because they run out of water in the dry spell,” says Moraa.
She adds: “People have to dig shallow wells in their homes for water but its suitability for domestic use is yet to be tested.”
The District Public Health Officer (DPHO), Mr Francis Makau fears the situation might result in outbreak of water borne diseases as people resort to dirty water.
“They sometimes have no option, but to share the remaining rivers with cattle,” he says.
The County Weekly established that the trend of springs and rivers drying up is a wider problem affecting Kisii and Nyamira counties despite abundant rainfall in the region surpassing 2,000mm annually.
But the locals seem unaware of the culprit. It is the eucalyptus commonly known as the blue gum.
According to environmentalists, a mature blue gum tree extracts 50 gallons of water daily.
Ever since Kenya Power started procuring poles locally, eucalyptus trees have become increasingly popular but residents will have to spend more eventually when the rivers dry up.
Kisii County Director of Environment (CDE), Samson Bokea attributes the trend to the fact that underground water is getting depleted owing to massive cultivation of blue gum trees along riverbanks and riparian zones.
“The environment has been battered. People have been planting eucalyptus relentlessly, but now they are facing a crisis,” he observes.
According to Water Resources Management Authority (Warma), no exotic trees are supposed to be planted between six and 30 feet from a riverbank, a regulation that has largely been ignored in Kisii and Nyamira counties.
Many complaints
Experts warn this will undermine the Government’s intention to provide safe and clean water by 2015, as stipulated in the Millennium Development Goals.
“I have got many complaints about springs that are now seasonal or dried up altogether,” says Mr Bokea.
Kisii District Water Officer (DWO) Alfred Obobe says the issue of conserving the environment is being neglected by the locals because of easy money that comes with eucalyptus.
