NATION AGENDA: To ease effects of drought, we must invest in water sources
What you need to know:
- If more investments were thrown into water harvesting at the local, county and national levels, starvation as a result of poor rains would be a thing of the past.
- Despite claims that Laikipia ranch invasions are politically driven, lack of water is the main reason of the conflicts.
The point is that we are still a long way to go to secure a lasting solution to the water challenges.
Kenya transitioned into 2017 with several challenges, key being drought and devastating famine. It followed a sequence of low rains for three consecutive years. To make matters worse, preliminary predictions point to a high probability that this year’s long rains will be equally poor.
Given the vital role water plays in Kenya’s economy and the overall welfare of citizens, the challenges that confront the sector and their consequences are expected to form a significant component of the election agenda this year.
This is particularly true since compared to other countries such as Israel, Kenya has sufficient, but poorly managed, water resources. Regrettably, we do not engage in serious debate on the factors that underlie the current water crisis, coupled with medium and long term solutions. Yet that should be part of the discussion during electioneering.
The drought is not confined to Kenya. Over the recent past, below average and erratic rainfall has resulted in high moisture deficits, degraded soils, resulting in poor crop prospects across many parts of Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania and stretching all the way to northern Mozambique. Historically, drought is a common phenomenon within Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa with its latest incidence in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2011 still fresh in memory.
MASSIVE DETERIORATION
As of last week, 23 counties were affected by the biting drought, afflicting some 2.7 million people. Characteristically, the drought has led to massive deterioration of the quality of vegetation as well as the quantity and quality of water resources. In many countries, people, mainly women and children, have to walk for long distances to fetch water.
The consequences of drought are rarely localised. In Kenya, at the macro-level, these effects manifest themselves in higher food and fodder prices, civil unrest and diminished social services as the government redeploys its budgets to meet the most pressing needs of its citizens, particularly food and water. At the household level, it worsens poverty.
Away from the arid and semi-arid areas, the situation is equally depressing. For instance, in Nairobi, the principal water provider – the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company – has been rationing the commodity since the beginning of the year. In fact, the rationing has been going on for long in some city neighbourhoods.
The water crisis in Nairobi is attributed to low water levels at Ndakaini Dam, which is caused by the prevailing drought and the adverse effects of climate change. Unfortunately, cities such as Nairobi have inherited an old water reticulation infrastructure that leads to huge amounts of water loss every day on account of leakages and illegal connections. These challenges must be addressed to avoid a recurrence of water rationing.
JOINT MANAGEMENT
In the countdown to the General Election, the government and opposition should engage the citizens on the joint management of water resources by county and national governments and the expansion of water resources and its conservation for agricultural, industrial, commercial and domestic use.
Ultimately, this will be achieved by placing more emphasis on water resources as opposed to the water supply in terms of budgetary allocation and capacity development within national and county governments.
A practical move would be to invest more resources in water harvesting at the local, county and national levels. This will necessitate coherent strategies to sort out the rampant soil erosion menace, which has systematically reduced the water holding capacities of dams and pans since independence.
This will also require the Agriculture Ministry to go back to the drawing board and design a more robust extension service, which has a great role in the fight against poverty.
Over the years, the lack of public extension service has been identified as a major factor undermining agricultural growth.
Designing and operationalising viable and sustainable agricultural irrigation systems devoid of corrupt practices and political interference is urgent. Unfortunately, many irrigation projects in the country have encountered serious problems, partially caused by insufficient water supply, for instance the Galana-Kulalu irrigation project at the Coast. Kenya should utilise the already existing menu of water efficient irrigation technologies that are suitable for our climatic, soil and social conditions.
WATER AQUIFIERS
Actualising the development of water resources, for instance the water aquifers in Turkana, should be accorded high priority. Unfortunately, one of the first attempts to utilise the ground water resources in Turkana for irrigation by Kerio Valley Development Authority has been unsuccessful.
It will be recalled that in September 2013, hydrologists predicted that the 250 billion cubic metres of water discovered on the foot of Mt Mogila in Lotikipi, along the Kenya-South Sudan border, could meet Kenya’s water needs for 70 years. Clearly, the plans of exploiting this huge potential must be developed quickly. However, given the challenges the Northern Collector Water Tunnel project has encountered, successful development of water resources is not arduous. One of the missing links is the effective engagement of the local communities.
Kenya should learn from other African countries that have had successful water relocation programmes like Lesotho.
Kenya must lay sustainable strategies to significantly increase forest cover while at the same time de-politicising displacement of people residing in the water towers such as the Mau Forest. Increased forest cover will lead to increased water resources.
In the absence of sustainable water resources management, conflict over the scarce resource will prove a huge challenge.
For example, in the past four months, about 10,000 armed herders from Baringo, Isiolo and Samburu counties have invaded conservancies, game lodges, ranches and smallholdings owned by farmers in Laikipia and Nyeri counties, leading to a major public outcry.
Despite the potential political dimension to these invasions, lack of water is still the primary cause of the conflicts. The point is that we are still a long way to go to secure a lasting solution to the water challenges.
Contributors: Prof Edward N. Kairu, Francis Mureithi, Barnabas Bii and Grace Gitau.
