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WETLANDS INTERNATIONAL
Tim Hobbs, Chairman, Mount Kenya Growers Group
Awareness and Efficiency to Curb Wastage
In this area, there used to be a perception that commercial farmers were using up most of the water in our rivers, but this is not the case. In reality, community water projects use over 80 per cent of the water abstracted from rivers. The more pertinent question for Mount Kenya Growers Group and other water users is, how efficiently are we using our water? Inefficiency, wrong irrigation technology and wasteful practices should be curbed through education and awareness. A case in point is when we came across a farmer irrigating his wheat crop using overhead sprinklers at midday on a windy day. We also have thousands of water users who are neither registered with a WRUA nor pay water fees. They exploit the resource at no cost and are likely to misuse and waste it because if you do not pay for something, there is a tendency not to appreciate it. Despite policy gaps, our regulatory framework for water governance is generally sound. However, the biggest impediment is weak implementation and inadequate enforcement due to budgetary constraints.
Another weakness is the absence of a holistic approach to WRM in large water basins with multiple users such as Ewaso Ng’iro North which transcends county administrative boundaries. This is the coordination gap that MKEWP is trying to fill. For instance, during the dry season, pastoralists move their herds up the mountain in search of pasture – not water. Unfortunately, the link between pasture management and conservation is rarely recognised as a WRM strategy. This means individuals and groups pursue their water interests with little consideration for the needs of others. The connection between people upstream and those downstream is also distant and a lot of sensitisation is needed to cement an understanding that what happens upstream affects the pastoralists downstream. The potential for commercial agriculture for employment and economic growth in this region is immense, but only if the resource is conserved and shared equitably.
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