The Water Hole

Category: Community, Kenya, Sugar, Tana Delta, Wetlands, Wildlife | Date: May 08 2008 | By: admin

Yesterday was the second day of the NEMA public hearings at the Tana Delta and as expected the villagers turned out in large numbers to voice their concerns. It is important, however, to note that not all villagers are against the Tana Integrated Sugar Project.

Take the events of yesterday for instance. Pastoralists came out with their goats and sheep to the meeting and carrying placards and uprooted sugarcane. They were not just going to use their voice to talk down the project. They were going to show the experts that their livestock is in danger. There was quite a fiasco when they started chanting protests and planting and uprooting sugarcane stalks (it looked quite comical on TV, i might say). Apparently, based on a report in the Daily Nation newspaper, they pulled the same stunts on the first day of the protest (Tuesday) much to the chagrin of the crop farmers.

The farmers, as I have said before, are largely supportive of the project. They are looking at the opportunity to supply sugarcane to the sugar factory as out-growers. About 10,000 acres of land has been promised to them under the out-grower scheme. The EAWLS and other conservationists are however gaining ground in their campaign to get the support of this crucial group. They have been providing factual information about the irreparable harm that this project could visit on the Delta.

The out-grower scheme and the said 20,000 jobs that the project has promised are being used as bait to lure the community to accept it. Project proponents know that it does not stand a chance in environmental terms and they are therefore employing cheap tactics - in the guise of socio-economic benefits - to lure the local people into their trap. It would be important to note that a sugar project in Ramisi (in Kwale District further south) also in the Kenya coast is not doing very well either. How dumb can people be? If Ramisi didn’t work, how do hey expect Tana to work?

Maybe an excerpt from an article published in the Sunday Standard a year ago will tell you how Ramisi fares these days:

Piles of concrete rubble spread for hundreds of metres, accentuated by large pillars sticking out as if in defiant mockery. Giant rats, baboons and monkeys fight for the wild berries growing in the compound, and a plantation of blooming cashew nut trees and coconut palms may be harvested by any passer-by.

Ramisi has been dead since 1987 (in the end, i think nature won). By the way, almost all state sugar plants have had to be bailed out by the government at one point or the other after digging themselves into a financial rut. Now they tell us the Tana Sugar will flourish.

The pastoralists are of course not amused. They are more than 20,000 hectares of their seasonal grazing land. They say that their animals will die when the dry season comes. From an environmental perspective, pastoralism is more eco-friendly and that would explain why we are sympathetic to the pastoralists cause. The Masai Mara is among the most spectacular wildlife areas because - on the large part - the Maasai are pastoralists. Somebody convince me that growing wheat (which is the ideal crop for the area) in the Mara - if it came to that - would make more economic sense than tourism and I will call him/her a blatant liar.

The environmentalists who are following the proceedings down at the Delta are using all opportunities to fight this monster both for the sake of the environment and for the sake of the community. Although crop farmers may see the immediate economic benefits, they need to be told that environmental damage arising from the project will in the long run affect the productivity of their land. Their yields of food-crops will definitely decline.

Today is the last day of the hearings and in two weeks NEMA will make a decision on whether the project is to be given a clean bill of environmental health or not

Lets wait and see.

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