By Clifford Akumu
As the World celebrates World Water Day, one of the International environmental lobbysts Green Peace, is urging the Government of Kenya to put more effort into preserving the country’s main water catchment areas for sustainable livelihoods.
Greenpeace Africa made the call during a clean-up and tree planting exercise that was carried out at Gatharaine river, a tributary of Nairobi River by its volunteers and Small Axe- to mark World Water Day.
According to the United Nations World Water Development Report, an estimated 64-71% of natural wetlands have been lost since 1900 as a result of human activity.
This situation poses a threat to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6, which commits the world to ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030.
Frederick Njehu, Greenpeace Africa’s Senior Political Advisor noted that “Kenya has been experiencing extreme weather patterns from debilitating droughts to flash floods that have seen many people lose their lives. Healthy ecosystems are able to mitigate the effects of floods and droughts”
“Restoring forests, grasslands and natural wetlands, reconnecting rivers to floodplains, creating buffers of vegetation along watercourses, avoid building on riparian and water catchment areas – these are some examples of natural based solutions that can help the management of water availability and quality,” says Fredrick
This year’s World Water Day theme ‘Nature for Water’ explores how we can use nature to overcome the water challenges in the 21st century. But as the world commemorates the day many Kenyans still do not have access to clean and safe water.
Deforestation, degradation, and encroachment of water towers deprives the Kenyan economy of 6 billion Shillings annually and threatens the supply of more than 70 percent of the country’s water supply.
Water scarcity in Kenya has been an issue for decades. Kenya’s water shortage also means that a large population of women and children spend up to a third of their day fetching water from the nearest water source.
As a preventative measure, in February this year, the government suspended logging for 90 days and warned millers who harvest trees beyond the required quarters saying that drastic measures like revoking their licenses will be applied.
“In the wake of the widespread destruction of forest cover that has led to the recent acute water crisis, suspension of logging for just 90 days is not enough. Illegal logging and deforestation have continued to threaten millions of livelihoods of Kenyans who depend on the forest as a result of changing rainfall patterns. The government should impose a total ban on logging in all gazetted and community forests,” continued Njehu.
The right to safe water in adequate quantities is spelled out in Article 43 of Kenya’s constitution. Water security is one of the most tangible and fastest-growing social, political and economic challenge faced by many people today.
By 2050, the world’s population will have grown by an estimated 2 billion people and global water demand could be up to 30% higher than today. It is paramount that we preserve, protect and restore the water catchment areas to avoid a mega-crisis.
