In this issue: The Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA) has published catchment management strategies (CMS) for public comments.
The Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA) has published a notification informing the public of its intention to publish the Catchment Management Strategies (CMS) for four critical water catchment areas in Kenya, namely the Athi, Ewaso Ng’iro North, Rift Valley and Lake Victoria South catchment areas. The Kenya Gazette of 19 December 2008 contains summaries of the draft strategies, and indicates where the full text can be obtained. The public are invited to comment within 30 days of this notice being published.
The Gazette notice highlights several pertinent facts about the water situation in Kenya. Both individual and corporate consumers have insufficient access to water, and the authority is expected to lead the country in dealing with issues and challenges associated with water resource management in an environment of predominant scarcity.
Except for the Lake Victoria basin, which could be rated as water surplus area through natural endowment, the rest of Kenya is water deficient, with severe water shortages in the arid and semi-arid as well as peri-urban areas. Current water shortages are exacerbated by water quality impairment and catchment area degradation. Compared to the global recommended benchmark of water usage per capita of 1,000 cubic meters, Kenya does poorly at 647 cubic meters per head, and the demand for water is expected to increase further.
As a result of inadequate water resources management and also weak enforcement of compliance to legislation, many water abstractions in the country are illegal. According to the Ministry of Water and Natural Resources, over 90% of all boreholes in Kenya do not have permits while over 50% of the water abstractions that had permits were not complying with permit requirements.
Arising from such concerns, the Kenyan government has undertaken implementation of the water sector reforms that are mainly anchored on integrated water resource management and the internationally agreed Dublin Principles of water management. These principles are based on the notion that freshwater is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment; and that water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy-makers at all levels and realises that water has an economic value in all its competing uses, and should be recognised as an economic good.
The degradation of water resources in Kenya has been hastened by the encroachment into water catchment areas and the indiscriminate clearing of vegetation cover. The rate of de-forestation in Kenya, for example, as at alarming levels and has reduced the national forest cover to less than 1.7% against a recommended global threshold of 10%. This does not only augur badly for humans, but will have a negative impact on business growth and economic activity.
For agriculture, the effects are devastating, as a lot of top soil is eroded at the slightest down-pouring, resulting into high sediment loads that are choking rivers, wetlands, lakes and man made water storage facilities. For example, the depth of Lake Baringo in Rift Valley has fallen from 15 meters in 1921 to current levels of 1.8 meters. Where the depth of water courses has been reduced significantly, fish breeding is adversely affected, irrigation water is lost and all these implications translate into a threat to human life and an alteration of ecosystems – and ultimately into significant economic losses, since agriculture is still the mainstay of Kenya’s economy, earning about 60% of foreign exchange and generating almost 70% of employment opportunities. As rain-fed agriculture cannot guarantee national food security, irrigated agriculture will need to play a bigger role in the sector, but the lack of water augurs badly for the sector.
The livestock sector is also another sector that is severely affected by water scarcity. During the 1999-2000 drought for example, the country lost about 26% of her total livestock valued at KES5.8bn, according to government statistics. Due to demands for livestock products, livestock population are expected to increase, with a resultant increase in demand for water to an estimated level of 170m cubic meters by the year 2010. Other sectors with increasing water demands include tourism, fisheries, industrial and energy production as well as ecosystem support.
In Kenya, other activities with grave consequences to water resources include poor management and indiscriminate dumping of wastes, poorly planned quarrying and mining and generally poor land use practices.
Issues surrounding water resources are further aggravated by increased and diversified water use without commensurate storage. According to the observed demand trends by the government, domestic water use estimated at 1.1m cubic meters a day in 1990, is expected to increase to about 2.8m cubic meters by 2010 due to population growth.
The establishment of WRMA is supposed to give a national perspective on how water resources should be managed, controlled, protected, used and developed. The authority has formulated a Catchment Management Strategy (CMS) for the four catchment areas.
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