Mt Kenya water crisis
Increasing ecological destruction and changes in land use around Mt Kenya,
Africa's second-highest mountain, are bringing severe pressure to bear on the
mountain's rivers, thereby placing millions whose livelihoods depend on their
waters at risk.
Located on the equator, the Mt Kenya forest is Kenya's most important source
of water, meeting 50 percent of the country's needs for fresh water, and
supplying the national grid with about 70 percent of its hydroelectric power.
However, a combination of factors - notably the changes in land use around
the mountain, deforestation caused by illegal logging and land-clearance, and
the gradual melting of the mountain's glaciers - are thought to be responsible
for depleting the streams and rivers flowing down from its slopes.
Land use
In recent years, farmers cultivating the mountain's highlands have been
accused of using increasing amounts of water to irrigate their crops, with the
result that the volume of water reaching lands at lower altitudes has been
severely reduced. This in turn has served to fuel hostility from those whose
survival depends on lowland pastures and has affected cattle ranching and
tourism in wildlife reserves.
Moreover, nearly 300 boarding schools scattered around the base of the
mountain and its lower slopes - following cuts in government subsidies - have
been forced to rely on harvesting fuel wood from the forest for cooking and
heating. This has resulted in rapid and massive deforestation, loss of vital
biodiversity, and further loss of water for hydroelectric power systems.
The areas most affected lie in the Ewaso Ng'iro river basin, on whose waters
60 percent of the inhabitants depend for irrigation. Those living on the
semiarid plains further downstream are suffering even more, according to
experts.
In a study on world mountains, Hanspeter Liniger and Rolf Weingartner of the
Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland, noted that both the
population and the area of cultivation on Mt Kenya's lower slopes and below, had
more than tripled over the last 20 years, while abstractions of water from the
mountain's rivers had dramatically increased. In their report, entitled
"Impact of Mountain Resource Management on Fresh Water Supply: The Mount
Kenya experience", they said control and management of abstractions were
inadequate.
Currently, 10 times as much water as the volume provided for under existing
regulations is being used. "Monitoring of abstractions, improved procedures
for allocation and better management and control are urgently needed," the
report stressed.
Meanwhile, according to the Swiss-based Mountain Agenda - an environmental
think-tank seeking to enhance the position of mountains on the environmental
agenda - removal of vegetation cover and intensified land use on the slopes of
Mt Kenya have led to increased surface runoff during heavy storms, causing
erosion and pollution of surface water.
In a report, the group stated that previously unknown flash floods had also
been recorded in recent years, inundating old farm houses and tourist lodges,
with the end result of less water being stored in the mountains to feed the
rivers during the dry seasons.
Michael Gachanja, who works on the Kenya Forest Working Group programme of
the East African Wildlife Society, argues that the water-supply problem in the
region is mostly attributable to misuse and mismanagement.
He says areas of high agricultural potential on the higher slopes, where
farming is mostly confined to smallholdings, generally use less water from the
Ewaso Ng'iro than the big farms and ranches located midstream.
"Ranches and big farms consume a lot of water from the river. A lot of
water also evaporates, so pastoralist people downstream get very little. The
issue is to balance water usage," Gachanja told IRIN.
Kenya's water problem however, is not confined to the Mt Kenya region. Ezra
Maritim, the vice chancellor of Kenya's Egerton University recently warned that
Kenya currently had the least access to safe water in East Africa. He said Kenya
provided each of its citizens with 647 cubic metres of water, compared to
neighbouring Tanzania's 3,000 and Uganda's 2,700 cubic metres.
"We must start viewing the acute water shortage as a serious national
problem. It is likely to become a national disaster," Maritim warned in the
'Daily Nation' newspaper.
Solutions
Experts argue that the first steps towards successful water-resource
management must comprise monitoring the natural resources and their use, as well
as assessing the impact of land-use change in the highlands on the availability
and quality of water in the lowlands.
The main challenge would therefore be the search for efficient use of the
mountain-water resources, their equitable distribution, and effective water and
land management.
In its 2002 report, entitled "Mountain Water and a Thirsty World",
the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation identifies cooperation as the key to
the successful protection and equitable distribution of the world's freshwater
resources.
"Watershed management must take into account the needs of all those who
depend on mountain water, including those who have the greatest stake in
preserving healthy mountain ecosystems - the mountain people themselves,"
the report states.
In many areas, mountain people are among the poorest residents and those with
the least influence, according to the report. "In their struggle for
survival, they are forced to scratch out a living on marginal lands, and to cut
[down] trees at unsustainable rates."
Breaking the cycle of poverty and involving mountain people in
decision-making processes constituted an essential first step towards ensuring a
sustained flow of fresh mountain water, it said.
[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's
IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs 2002]
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