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VOICES FOR WETLANDS AND WATER: CASE STUDIES ON WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT & WASH IN KENYA
Kimana Swamp: Why Birds Fled the Nest
Kimana is an illustration of how rising human populations, changing lifestyles, unsustainable use, lethargy, competing stakeholders and lack of political goodwill can destroy a critical wetland. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry, National Environment Authority (NEMA), Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Water Resources Authority (WRA) and the County Government of Kajiado are the key stakeholders, yet none has direct authority over this wetland. The land belongs to the local Maasai whose dwindling livestock numbers do not pay as well as agribusiness – even when the land is merely leased to farmers. Measuring 10,000 hectares, Kimana is the biggest wetland in Kajiado. Its influence spreads across geographical boundaries and ecosystems up to Tsavo West National Park and the Indian Ocean, hundreds of kilometres away. But this reservoir that once stored and provided water for thousands of people, livestock and wildlife for generations has been reduced to a swamp only in name. Sucked dry by commercial onion, tomato and French beans farmers, a biodiversity haven that once teemed with life is now a toxic, dying vegetable farm.
Outdated irrigation methods waste water, while fertilisers and deadly pesticides used to farm vegetables seep underground, poisoning water, soils and the people, livestock and wildlife that depend on it downstream. The damage extends further afield, as the produce ends up in plates in Nairobi and other urban centres spread across the country. A small township has also emerged on the swamp to feed the army of farmhands, loaders and drivers who earn a living here. Such unregulated developments discharge effluent into water systems. Upstream, 11 springs that used to drain into the swamp no longer do because of heavy abstraction for furrow irrigation. Logging, charcoal burning and encroachment onto riparian land have destroyed their catchment while shallow pit latrines have compromised water quality. Emmanuel Parsaloi is chairman of Ilkisonko WRUA which was registered in 2008. The WRUA manages these springs which are now demarcated and fenced. But the status of Kimana, from where hundreds of trucks laden with fresh farm produce drive out of daily, and the challenges that undermine its integrity weigh heavily on his mind. Why is it so difficult to gazette this wetland so that it is protected? Why is it so hard to enforce regulations so that the water resource is managed better to enable the community, our livestock and wildlife to access clean water? - Emmanuel Parsaloi His greatest fear is that destruction of the wetland and surrounding springs will not just affect water and sanitation services, but will also disrupt local livelihoods and economy.
Emmanuel Parsaloi & Francis Saigilo at Kimana Swamp
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