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Mount Kenya – recharging Kenya's largest water tower by protecting the environment Environmental degradation and changes in climate in the Mount Kenya area are threatening the mountain that is the country's largest water tower. Mount Kenya provides close to half the flow of the Tana River, which produces 50 per cent of the hydropower generated in Kenya. Mount Kenya is a source of water for irrigated agriculture, fisheries, livestock production and biodiversity conservation and is strategic to the country's economic development. Restoring vegetation cover and protecting water catchments and sources have become a priority for communities and the government. An IFAD-funded project, the Mount Kenya East Pilot Project for Natural Resource Management, is also responding to the challenge.
Communities are responding by forming water users' associations along the main rivers flowing from the mountain. With the support of the government and IFAD, the associations plant trees and cover vegetation to protect riverbeds and natural springs, monitor the pollution levels of the rivers and work to gain legal status to obtain the rights to manage and sell water for their communities. "Given the importance of Mount Kenya for water supply, something had to be done around the mountain to ensure sustainable protection of the environment and a continued supply of water to the people, while making sure that people living around the mountain have sustainable livelihoods," explains Robson Mutandi, IFAD's Country programme manager. Working in partnership with the government and the Global Environment Facility, IFAD funds the Mount Kenya East Pilot Project for Natural Resource Management (MKEPP), which combines environmental conservation with improved farming practices and income-generating activities, with the aim of improving the lives of Mount Kenya's poorest people. The project started in 2004, for a duration of eight years. The poor people in Mount Kenya’s rural areas are equally concerned about water supply and quality. "Our rivers are so bad," says Margaret Muthanje Simbah, Secretary of the Ena River Water Users’ Association, a group formed by the project to protect one of the rivers flowing from Mount Kenya. "They are so spoiled. The water we fetch is dirty and contaminated. We need the water to be clean for ourselves and for our children, so we decided to act. We formed the water users' association to do something about it — to clean up and preserve our water resources." Without proper vegetation cover to protect the soil and prevent water from evaporating, springs progressively dry up and water sources that were once abundant and clean can no longer be used. Washed-out sediments, agrochemical pollution and trash contaminate water sources across the country.
"During the dry season, the water from our spring would drip so slowly that we would have to line up and even sleep at the spring just to get some water," explains Lucy Njoki, Chairperson of the Rumbia Women's Group. When the project came to her village, in Mbeere district, the first thing the group asked the project to do was to support them in rehabilitating the spring. The women even manually built 1 km of road so that vehicles with construction material could reach the spring and start work. Now water flows from a tap and the queues are gone. Hygiene has also improved as a result. In some communities, environmental protection of water sources started even before the start of the project in 2005. Jane Mary Wambeti Joe, a participant in the Kirurumwe Valley River Rehabilitation Programme, a programme set up by the local water user's association, started her own tree nursery some years ago as a source of income and to provide seedlings to plant along the river banks. The demand for tree seedlings to plant is so high that she is now able to earn enough to cover her two children's secondary school fees. "The trees are important in preventing soil erosion," she says. "We need them in order to get rain, too." Creating strong water users' associations as a key to sustainability
Long-term sustainability is one of the reasons why water users’ associations and project management committees are encouraged to sell water, although at a very low price, rather than give it away, in the water kiosks that they manage. Fees cover the costs of infrastructure repairs and chemical for water analysis and treatment. Buying water was once an unpopular idea, but communities are quickly realizing the benefit of paying for clean and accessible water. "In the long run," adds Mutandi, "the aim is to have institutions at the community level that are fully aware of their responsibility to manage their resources in a sustainable manner. They also need to be able to generate enough income to sustain themselves and to feed back into protecting the environment." |
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