Red alert as Mt Kenya rivers dry up

By NATION Correspondent

The chicken have finally come home to roost. The mighty Mount Kenya is finally giving way as an inexhaustible water fountain.

Yet it is amazing that communities on the slopes - the country's largest water tower - have none to drink. And those further downstream have to go upstream to find out where the water has gone.

Last week, the Government issued the red alert: streams had dried up and all irrigation abstractions should stop immediately to avert conflicts with downstream consumers.

As he announced immediate suspension of all abstraction permits, Central Provincial Water Engineer Tom Ogola warned: "There is a severe shortage everywhere as the water levels have gone down. Most water is being consumed on the slopes by farmers. Conflicts could occur if water does not reach the downstream communities."

Sample this: The 110,000 - acre Lonrho - owned Ol-Pejeta Ranch, astride the mighty Ewaso Nyiro River, is being forced to sink boreholes to water wildlife.

The winding Ewaso Nyiro - known locally as the River of God (due to its resilience during severe droughts) - is no longer adequate to support the wildlife and livestock at the ranch.

Secondly, the Nanyuki Municipal Council, barely at the base of Mt Kenya forest, has hired water engineers to explore and design expansion of alternative water tapping facilities high up the mountain. The current intake no longer satisfies the town's water needs.

Most of the woes are blamed on upstream over- abstraction of river water, largely to sustain the growing horticultural farming industry thriving on the slopes of both Mt Kenya and the Aberdares ranges.

It is relevant to note that the horticultural farming - mainly for export - has grown by leaps and bounds in the same period in which traditional local income-earning crops, notably coffee, have declined. Kenya recently overtook Israel as the leading horticultural exporter to Europe.

Dairy and beef farming gave up a long time ago after the Kenya Co-operative Creameries' under-performance and the Kenya Meat Commission's demise.

Banditry and cattle rustling have left many families little choice but to abandon livestock for farming - usually along river beds - in the marginal areas of Laikipia and large parts of Meru Central districts.

The combination of large- and small-scale horticultural concerns and subsistence farmers have all exerted a lot of pressure on water sources. This scramble for water is now stoking conflict between the competing parties - between small-scale and large-scale farmers, between farmers and pastoralists and between everybody else and wildlife.

It is noteworthy that the Government has recently appeared hell-bent to destroy the last of the few remaining water catchments by hiving off chunks of the forest and half-heartedly fighting logging.

A recent UNDP survey reports that, by 1999, the mountain had lost 8,000 hectares of forest cover to bhang growing, encroachment by cultivators, loggers and charcoal burners, among others.

The Government suspension of irrigation permits and promise to increase monitoring compliance will prove difficulty to implement. This is because the Water Department simply has no resources or personnel to man and police all streams and river profiles to enforce its rules.

Again, few farmers are willing to comply with the orders, which means allowing their crops and investments to die at a time when they expect to make a killing - market prices are best during dry spells.

The bright side of this crisis is that it is forcing groups of people on the brink of full scale confrontation to come together to form Water Users Associations - consumers from a common source agreeing to police themselves on water use.

As Mr Ogalo was issuing his orders in Nyeri, several local water user associations, administrators, departmental heads, researchers and large-scale horticultural farmers were meeting in Nanyuki to discuss the crisis.

The meeting was organised by the Natural Resources Management, a Monitoring and Modelling project, which collects data on water resource trends along the Ewaso Nyiro basin.

Participants were of the impression that the current crisis was a result of the archaic and unsustainable water technologies and management systems.

In spite of aspirations to develop agriculture and industrialise, Kenya still uses 18th-century water management methods - going down the river valley and scooping, hoping it will always be there for every use.

The meeting, opened by Laikipia District Commissioner Abdulahi Leloon, noted that communal self-policing was the best way for water users associations and needed to be enhanced to avert chaos.

In Laikipia, Meru Central and parts of Nyeri, where the shortages are most acute, the existing users associations have been monitoring abuse by abstraction permit holders, illegal abstractions, pollution and catchment destruction.

It was resolved: "Riparian land owners are the most difficult group. Because they have access to water, they feel they do not need the associations and are free to use water from rivers passing through their shambas however they want.

"To counter this arrogance, it is necessary for Government agencies to be incorporated into the associations" The Government was also urged to make all abstraction permits public by gazetting them in time to enable affected groups to file objections.

Most importantly, there is a need to computerise water management to enable decision-makers to consolidate information and data from various districts to help them make more accurate decisions.

Currently every district issues its own permits, with no reference to others, contributing to the chaos along the Ewaso Nyiro, that traverses 11 districts.

Dr Francis Gichuki of University of Nairobi said the country's water problem is not shortage but mismanagement. He said: "We are not going to tell farmers to stop farming or allow our livestock and wildlife to die for lack of water. We just have to acknowledge that surface (river) water is no longer adequate for a our present and future needs." This means adopting necessary technologies to enable us to exploit the alternative water sources."

However, harvesting rain water could require huge cash if, for example, construction of water reservoirs is what is necessary. For instance, Homegrown general manager Tim Hobbs says the company has invested about Sh180 million in erecting reservoirs to surface its Timau farms.

Laikipia District Water Officer John Wainana says the Government and the local authorities should also consider reviving the scrapped water levy - charged on all abstraction permit holders - and reinvest in dam construction for public use.

He says: "Every body who makes a profit from commercial activities based on natural water sources should pay this levy, including the Kenya Power and Lighting Company, hotels, commercial farmers and those dealing in forest products.

"However, this is a policy decision which needs political backing."