By Jacob K. Kibwage

Kenya has been experiencing disastrous floods every rain season especially in Western, Nyanza and Tana Delta regions. Widespread damage was caused to crops, roads, urban infrastructure and loss of human lives and livestock.

These floods are a major setback to the country’s economy, in part because of the annual heavy expenditures by the Government in its prompt and effective relief and emergency efforts and in part by the disruption of economic activities.

These annual events for the last 50 years always stimulate considerable national interest in helping the affected by providing them with emergences like evacuation, blankets, food and some drugs as short-term measures to deal with the flood problem. Substantial resources have also been spent on long-term measures like building of dykes and construction of flood control dams, but this process has been very slow!

The country can’t be at the mercy of floods forever because all major rivers must eventually be contained so that floods are safely passed through various regions draining into Lake Victoria or to the Indian Ocean.  We must control our rivers and not them to control us as a nation after 50 years of independence.

This would reduce the risks associated with economic activity on the floodplains and increase economic growth rate of the country by the envisaged double digits.

While current policy is that a high degree of structural protection is a key element of the long-term strategy, there must be shift to focus on reorganisation and planning of rural human settlements in the affected areas.

The most disturbing issue is that various government agencies like Nema, Ministry of Lands among others are blindingly watching future distasters-in-waiting as more human settlements are being established in flood-prone areas.This must be brought to an end!

It is time the Jubilee Government changed the policy direction from that of annual budgeting for “blankets and food handouts” to sustainable and long-term measures like development of eco-villages in flood affected areas.

Jubilee Manifesto

An eco-village is an intentional human community developed and intended to be socially, economically and ecologically sustainable.

The first step is to map all flood-prone areas, identify possible raised areas for establishment of new settlements as eco-villages. Some areas near major highways/roads can artificially be raised a few metres above ground as the case in countries like Bangladesh.

The concept of eco-villages is proposed in order to leave more floodplains for agricultural production, conserve the environment, ensure human and food security and speed socio-economic development agenda outlined in Kenya’s Vision 2030 and the Jubilee Manifesto.

In the proposed eco-villages, local communities will be encouraged to be unified by their diversity as Kenyan families irrespective of clan or ethnicity.

Each village will have its own unique African or historical name and it will be expected to operate independently by having an eco-school, health centre, sustainable water source/borehole, sustainable waste disposal system, solar/wind/mini-hydro energy supply, sport facilities, social halls, access roads, common animal yard, etc.

Each household will lease the land from Government for a given period of time and this should be transferrable to other generations in future.

A village should have between 250-500 families for sustainability purposes and steady growth. All communal facilities and services should be planned, owned and managed by residents through Village Committees. People will continue to own their farms in the flood plains privately.

The vision of this proposed eco-villages approach is expected only to succeed through strong partnerships from the Central and County Governments, local and international stakeholders, development partners and NGOs, local leaders and affected communities.

Most government ministries are expected to take a leading role in the implementation of relevant components of the programme, if adopted.

For example, establishment of eco-schools, water supply, provision of agricultural inputs and extension services and irrigation schemes will be spearheaded by the ministries of Education, Water and Agriculture, respectively.

If this approach is used, we expect sustainability and higher agricultural production because floods will be history and more land will be available for commercial farming.

Non-structural measures

It is also my humble request to our new Government to quickly develop a five-year (2013/14-2017/18) National Flood Control Action Plan, which would be the first step in the implementation of a comprehensive long-term programme for flood control and drainage in the country. This will help Government’s long-term objectives in improving livelihoods of Kenyans.

The foundation of the plan should be in establishment of eco-villages and on-going structural solutions. This should be carried out in parallel with rural county development resettlement and agricultural programmes.

A decentralised/devolved programme to counties of non-structural measures such as flood forecast, warning, preparedness and disaster management should also be clearly spelt in the Action Plan proposed. This is the only way to help our people by destroying the cartels surviving on the periodical “blankets and food handouts” programmes in the name of emergencies. 

Prof Kibwage is Dean, School of Environment and Natural Resources Management,

South Eastern Kenya University.