Authorities must act to save rivers
By Editorial.Team, February 10, 2023The sharing of resources, especially water, has been cited among key sources of conflicts between communities especially in periods of prolonged drought such as the one Kenya is going through now.
Competition for water can also be a source of deadly conflict between humans and wildlife, not to mention the impact of wildlife deaths arising from drought has on livelihoods. That is why urgent action must be taken to save the country’s rivers, which have been drying up at an alarming rate in recent years.
Experts have warned that the country is staring at a possible food and water crisis which could lead to humanitarian conflict and a crisis of historic proportions if not checked.
Recent data indicates that a majority of Kenyans rely on river water for domestic use. An increasing number is also damming rivers for commercial irrigation. And the cutting down of trees for charcoal remains endemic in many regions. Environmentalists are now blaming the dire water situation on such practices, which have been made worse by poor response strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change, environmental degradation, disruptive human activity on water bodies, massive pollution, encroachment of wetlands and diversion of water.
Deforestation and large-scale farmers who have diverted water for irrigation take the major blame for the dwindling of water as a resource.
To address the looming crisis, authorities ought to take steps to stop destruction of water sources as well as conserve and restore wetlands.
A report by the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) last year indicated that most rivers in Africa had “below-normal discharge in 2021.” Kenya is no different.
According to WMO, the impacts of climate change are often felt through water–more intense and frequent droughts, extreme flooding, erratic seasonal rainfall and accelerated melting of glaciers–with cascading effects on economies, ecosystems and all aspects of human life.
That is why Kenyans must take advantage of the Jaza Miti initiative spearheaded by the government. The aim of the initiative is to grow 15 billion trees over the next 15 years and hopefully rehabilitate water catchment areas battered by destruction of forests for the past 20 years.