Alarm over disappearing mangrove forests

By Dann Okoth

Biodiversity along the Ten-Mile Coastal Strip is under threat following massive environmental degradation by salt manufacturing companies.

More than 500 hectares of mangroves have been felled to create room for the construction of salt ponds in the area. The destruction is worsened by salinisation.

Salinisation occurs as a result of hypersalinity and blockage of sea wave breathing channels due to construction of dykes by the salt companies.

The development comes in the wake of a revelation by the National environmental Management Authority (Nema) that the salt companies are operating without the requisite Environment Impact Assessment (EIA).

"Non of the salt companies had an EIA done before they started operation because most of them came into being before the enactment of Environmental Management and Coordination Act, 1999," says Acting Nema Public Relations Officer Wangari Kihara. The EMCA is the principal regulatory instrument governing environmental management and natural resource use. It establishes Nema, as the principal regulatory authority and obligates it to ensure compliance and enforcement of environmental related legislation.

Report back

Kihara says Nema has ordered all the companies to do an environmental audit of their operations and report back to the authority in three months.

"Without this audit and full compliance with environmental regulations no company will be allowed to operate," she says.

But the authority has come under heavy criticism from residents and other experts for sleeping on the job. "I am frustrated that despite many studies and recommendations Nema, and the ministries of Environment and Natural Resources and that of Public Health and Sanitation have not acted even as the companies degrade the environment with impunity," says Magarini MP Amason Kingi.

The mangroves are important because they protect the coastline. But their expansive clearing to create room for salt operations encourages coastal erosion.

"It is evident that massive forest areas have been cleared. Traditionally, these forests are important sources of food, herbal medicine and also act as rangelands for pasture," says Mr Samuel Lewa, a member of the Malindi Rights Forum, an NGO agitating for land and socio-economic rights of communities living along the Ten-Mile Coastal Strip.

Cleared areas

The salt manufacturing area has been expanding and if all the allocated land was to be put under salt manufacturing, then an area in excess of 10,000 hectares would be devoid of vegetation reports the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.