UN boss urges residents to use lake

By Kepher Otieno

Kisumu Municipal leaders have been challenged to exploit and harness the potential of Lake Victoria.

UN-Regional Technical Director Dr Alioune Badiane wondered why there are no major investments in the town despite the lake being a useful resource.

"Its sad that you celebrate city status yet you have ignored other key segments of development," he told a UN-Habitat forum in Kisumu.

Badiane was not impressed that over the years, local leaders have watched the abundant natural resources lie under-utilised.

Even though Nyanza PC Francis Mutie earlier enumerated various challenges the town faces, Badiane asked them to explore the water resource.

"Right now we would be seeing a lot of activities going on in the lake, yet what we see is the opposite of our expectations," said the diplomat.

Mutie told the forum that the water hyacinth weed had impeded development on the lake.

Proper housing

Mayor Sam Okello said the weed had proved tedious to remove thus making it a nuisance.

But the woes aside, the diplomat told the leaders to be ready to work hard to come up development projects.

As populations in cities increase, Badiane observed that the major challenge shifts to proper housing and planning. This means interventions in human settlements, particularly in cities, would determine success in achieving national goals. Kisumu town West MP Olago Aluoch advised the council to put in place measures to respond to the challenges of urban growth.

"Patterns of future urban growth will affect the incidence and severity of issues and influence strategies for intervention," Mr Olago said

He told residents and leaders to prepare for benefits of the city status. "We have passed urban city laws that have automatically made Kisumu and Mombasa cities," he said. He said the morphology of cities, future populations, access to basic services, would have a direct bearing on health of populations.