Kenya: Crisis Looms as Rivers Around Mt Kenya Dry Up

Environmentalists attribute the death of glaciers to global warming, which refers to a rise in the planet’s temperatures due to destruction of the environment. Following the death of the rivers, millions of people and scores of tree and animal species that depend on them are at risk. In 1997, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation declared Mount Kenya a world heritage site in recognition of its rich flora and fauna. But this, too, is threatened.

Now, conservationists and leaders are worried that the receding waters could be a major cause of conflict as communities compete over the scarce commodity. Residents living along Rugusu River in South Imenti are already involved in violent clashes over water and pasture.
“Those living downstream are angry that their colleagues uphill are using all the water. They have formed vigilantes and no one can draw water without their permission,” says Mr Maitima Mukindia, the manager of Ewaso Nyiro North Water Resources Management Authority.

The authority is supposed to ensure people use the river properly. The river is now a deep valley that holds little water at the deepest points. Cutting across South and North Imenti and heading towards Isiolo, Ngarenaro is not a river any more but a deep trench in which one can walk for a kilometre before getting any water.

Residents only keep looking up to the unpredictable rain as the option to trekking for kilometres in search of the commodity. Recently, when the authority attempted to build a Sh25 million dam along the river, residents objected and vigilante groups issued death threats to the water officials.

Citing latest reports that famine would increase due to melting of snow on Mount Kenya, Gitonga says large-scale horticulture farmers upstream have exacerbated the situation by heavily contributing to the drying up of rivers.

He says Rugusu River started drying up five years ago when residents ventured into charcoal burning, thus plundering forests. “We are to blame for the change of weather, but we would still be getting some water downstream were it not for those plantations upstream,” he says.

AllAfrica