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VOICES FOR WETLANDS AND WATER: CASE STUDIES ON WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT & WASH IN KENYA
Laikipia County: Scarcity in Abundance
Strengthening Public Private Partnerships in Laikipia
Laikipia’s Upper Ewaso Ng’iro basin encompasses urban dwellers, large and small holding farmers and pastoralists. The highland areas are blessed with abundant rainfall and permanent rivers and springs. But water issues here are thorny, particularly on the communities who dwell on the lower, semi-arid reaches of the basin served with only one permanent river, seasonal rivers and streams. Intense land sub-division, unregulated irrigation and water wastage in this dry area have reduced river flow, leading to conflicts between farmers and pastoralists, and humans and wildlife on the other hand. During severe droughts, desperate pastoralists drive cattle up the mountain and hills, compromising the ecological integrity of the water catchments. The situation is compounded by climate change, with droughts becoming longer and floods more frequent. Mount Kenya-Ewaso Water Partnership (MKEWP) was established by growers and conservancies out of the realisation that a focused group dealing with water to drive conservation and equitable distribution of the limited resource was needed to support voluntary WRUAs which were ineffective because of inadequate capacity and lack of resources. Comprising six wildlife conservancies, 30 WRUAs, 17 commercial flower farmers from the Mt Kenya Growers Group, two research institutions and environmental state agencies such as WRA, KFS, KWS and NEMA, MKEWP covers the five counties of Nyeri, Laikipia, Isiolo, Nyandarua and Meru that form the water basin for all rivers streaming from Mt Kenya and the Aberdares Range.
and member associations, the Council sits thrice a year as a platform for strategy development, coordination, planning, information sharing and collaboration. MKEWP Coordinator Stanley Kirimi, also Watershed lead for Wetlands International in Laikipia County, says the association’s main objective is to build capacity for WRUAs to enable them to execute their functions in partnership with public and private institutions. Most critical are downstream communities where WRUAs are weak because of several issues, notably the feeble attachment by pastoralists to land and rivers.
Stanley Kirimi, MKEWP Coordinator
“The national government should use water fees paid to WRA to facilitate WRUAs so that they can monitor compliance of regulations along rivers and curb catchment destruction,” Kirimi observes. MKEWP has developed a management model to improve the capabilities of these water associations to carry out their functions.
At the apex is the MKEWP Council. With representatives drawn from county governments
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