Residents living in fear as an uphill dam overflows

A dam inside P.J Dave flower farm in Timau, Meru County. [Olivia Murithi/Standard]

At 21, Martin Mwireria is an ambitious man who hardly underestimates the power of the farm.

In two months, he would have been harvesting 70 sacks of potatoes from his leased half acre plot at Dunia village in Kisima, Meru County.

Mwireria recently cleared his diploma in civil engineering course at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. He then invested Sh28,000 in the farm, hoping to make Sh210,000 in return.

But that dream now hangs in the balance because in the past couple of days, a run-off from a flower farm uphill almost wiped out his entire farm harvest.

“I will be lucky if I reap a quarter of my expected harvest,” a crestfallen Mwireria said.

Worsening the situation is that his fate is almost tied up with that of his mother, Harriet Gacheri and father Godfrey Iringo, who have separately lost their expected harvest in the deluge.

The flooding was caused by a huge dam in the eight-acre flower farm overhanging Dunia village, which had overflown.

Ms Gacheri said she had lost a quarter-acre potato farm in the deluge. She says the dam’s overflow is almost a yearly ritual for her family.

In 2013, one year after the earth embankment dam with black polythene lining was constructed, the flood destroyed her home and she was compensated Sh13,000.

Relocate the home

“We finally had to relocate the home from near the drainage gulley to the middle of our farm to avoid constant threats from the deluge,” says Gacheri.

But to date, she continues losing her crops, ranging from wheat, peas, maize to potatoes and she does not know when this will end.

“There shall be no solution on this until the farm finds a way to control the run-off. But for now we are only interested in the compensation of the present losses,” says Catherine Kanana, 65, who has lost an expected harvest of 30 bags of potatoes.

They accuse the farm owners and managers of turning a deaf ear to their cries.

When contacted, a director at the farm said their dam was not responsible for the flooding.

“Oh no, my brother. It was purely rain water,” he replied on WhatsApp and promised to engage the aggrieved residents.

“Will definitely look into the complaints,” he said.

According to Dunia residents, the flower farm, which sits on a massive estate off the Nanyuki-Meru highway, generates a lot of runoff water from the greenhouses, which is harnessed into six dams, the largest of which menacingly hangs atop the village.

Patrick Njoroge says the villagers also live in constant fear of a burst of a water reservoir up the hill.

“I wouldn’t say a Solai would not happen there in case of a very heavy downpour,” said one resident, referring to the May 9, 2018 dam tragedy that killed 48 people in Nakuru County.

The flower farm, according to its neighbours, resorts to cutting off the drainage that feeds into the dam from the greenhouses runoff when the dam nears full capacity.

The runoff is then diverted into a thin strip of land where the company’s borehole is situated but the water runs off to neighbouring farms, sweeping off crops and top soils from the rich gardens.

According to area Assistant Chief George Manyara, the deluge runs for several kilometres to Ngare Ndare Forest.

“Over 200 families are affected and a solution needs to be found,” said Mr Manyara.

On May 8, at least 16 farmers, through an NGO, Justice and Environment Foundation, have sent a petition to the farm, asking it to accept liability for the destruction. They are yet to get a response.

“The dam has become a seasonal disaster and claims have been reported several times,” Robert Kinyua, the Enforcement Officer at Justice and Environment Foundation, wrote in the petition.

Salesio Kimumu says in May 2018 he lost five acres of maize, potatoes and wheat and is yet to be compensated. He threatened to go to court if the flower continues to ignore their pleas.