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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Category: Birds, Flamingo, IBAs, Lake Natron, Wetlands, Wildlife | Date: May 06 2008 | By: admin

We may have seen what resembles a lull in the activities relating to the soda ash project at Lake Natron but there is no justification whatsoever for us to take a nap. The Lake Natron Consultative Group (LNCG) has not taken the nap and they literrally have their eyes peeled.

Just today I got an article by the Reuters news agencies which said that they National Development Corporation (NDC) still believes that the project will not harm the flamingos. This, they say, is because they have moved the proposed processing site to some 36 km away from the Lake. I dont know how this would help since the issue of concern for flamingos is the water quality and how it affects the micro-organisms that they feed on. But the NDC says that “By locating the factory away from the lake, we are going to make sure that we can co-exist with the flamingos,”.

The LNCG is very disturbed that Tata and NDC are still planning to go ahead with the project. I think you should read the article for youself. Just follow this link

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Category: Community, Kenya, Sugar, Tana Delta, Wetlands | Date: May 05 2008 | By: admin

As NEMA gears up for the three public hearings on the proposed Tana Integrated Sugar Project, a new report by Nature Kenya has revealed that not only will the project contravene some laws, but it also does not make economic sence.

According to Nature Kenya, Mumias Sugar Company (project proponent) says that they will be making KShs 151-million (US$ 2.5-million) each year for the next 20 years. This figure, however is incorrect since they have not factored in such costs as fees for water use, compensation for lost livelihoods, chemical pollution and loss of tourism and wildlife which would give the true cost of the project. The report says that if these costs were included, the project would make as little as US$ 790,000 per annum. This according to them is a total waste of a rich resource that already makes US$ 60-million from tourism, farming (livestock), fisheries and other incomes.

In light of this report, Nature Kenya strongly recommends that the project be abandoned altogether. We hope with such convincing evidence against the project, the TISP will not be allowed to go on. We hope that Nature Kenya will join our own Wetlands team right now headed for the Delta to try and convince NEMA that the project cant go on when the public hearings start tomorrow (May 6).

A summary of key issues discussed in the report can be found here

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 30 2008 | By: admin

In my previous post, I mentioned that the National Environmental Management Agency (NEMA) would hold three public hearings in the Tana Delta to present the outcome of the review of comments made by the public on the EIA report of the Tana Intergrated Sugar Project (TISP). Well, on yeaterday’s (29 March 2008) Daily Nation newspaper, they finally announced the dates for these public hearing meetings.

The meetings will be held between 6-8 May 2008 in three villages in both Tana River and Lamu Districts. On 6 May 2008, NEMA will hold the meeting at the Danisa Village Grounds in Tana River District; on 7 May (Wednessday) they will be at Golbanti Village Grounds also in Tana River; and finally they will be at Witu Shopping Centre (Lamu) on 8 May (Thursday). All meetings are scheduled to start at 10:00 am.

According to the notice, NEMA has invited members of the public and interested stakeholders to give their views on the proposed project (TISP). It is expected that these meetings will be stormy given the polarized state in which the communities are regarding the project at this time.

EAWLS calls on all who are near the area - or anyone who can get there by any means - to get there and make his/her voice heard. We do not want to lose the Delta. We hope to send down a team to add their voice on these dates. We therefore call on you to support our efforts by donating through this blog.

Let us save the Tana Delta.

Here is the notice

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Category: Kenya, Legislation, Policy, Tana Delta, Wetlands | Date: Apr 28 2008 | By: admin

In keeping with our battle to save the Tana Delta from impending anihillation by the Sugar Project we sought to get clarification on whether Mumias Sugar Company had been issued with an Environmantal Impact Assessment License (EIA License) which would then mean that they can proceed with the project. To do this our Executive Director, Ali Kaka, wrote to the Director General of the National Environmental Management Agency (DG-NEMA), Dr Muusya Mwinzi on 11 April 2008 seeking to hear directly from the DG-NEMA about the EIA.

Previously, there was inside information that the Technical Committee had recommended that the said license be granted. Our Director thus sought to get this - so to say - from the horses mouth.

NEMA has just responded (with a letter dated 23 April 2008) saying that the license has not been issued yet given that they have not held any of the mandatory public hearings for the contested EIA report. According to their letter, NEMA is currently organizing three public hearings in the Tana Delta, “the proceedings of which will provide further guidance to the Authority”. Their letter also tells us that the dates and venues of the hearings will be publicized at least one week prior to the meeting by a notice in a daily newspaper, and by at least two announcements in the local language of the community and the national language through radio with nationwide coverage. Kenya’s national Environmental Management and Conservation Act (EMCA) requires that the above hearings and announcements be done (vide Regulation 22 of the EIA/EA Regulations, 2003).

Read the letter here

EAWLS will definitely be represented in the public hearings when they are announced and will go down to the Delta before the dates of the meetings to mobilize the community to come out in large numbers and speak their mind. This mobilization is of course in the docket of the EAWLS Wetlands Programme.

The Wetlands Programme has been facing an uphill task of trying to convince the government and the public that wetlands are not wastelands that should be rehabilitated and converted for productive activities (such as large scale agriculture). Wetlands, we have been telling government, are among the most productive ecosystems that need to be preserved.

The programme is making progress even with their limited financial resources but with more support from you, we can can score greater victories for our wetlands. Our wetlands are not only important for us. They are also important for you. We therefore call upon you once again to support the work of this very important programme by making donations.

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Category: Birds, Sugar, Tana Delta, Wetlands, Wildlife | Date: Apr 10 2008 | By: admin

The Water Hole was yesterday morning informed that the Technical Assessment Committee (TAC) on the proposed Tana Delta Sugar Project’s EIA has finalized its work and handed its report to the NEMA’s Director General (DG), Dr Muusya Mwinzi. The DG is also reported to have said that he is looking at the TAC report and will make his decision in the next few days. The KWF – who informed The Water Hole about this development has however urged ALL people concerned to be vigilant since they are informed that the TAC’s recommendation may not very good.

It will be very sad for the Tana Delta should the DG decide to give a clean bill to the development in line with this recommendation (which, as I have said, is suspect). It is unimaginable how dangerous this move can be. How much alteration to the ecosystem it will cause. How much biodiversity will be lost.

Perhaps a glance at a small fraction of what might be lost due to changes in the ecological system can inform you of the magnitude of the problem.

During the past Easter weekend, our good friend (and member of the SWARA Editorial Committee), Fleur Ng’weno was part of a Kenya Museum Society outing to the Tana Delta. During this short period, Fleur was treated to a feast of biodiversity that is both unique and astonishing.

“We stayed in Kipini, where I could observe the birds roosting on the sandbanks on the south bank of River Tana.” wrote Fleur in an email to the Kenya BirdsNet email network. During a boat ride up the Tana River she got to Hippo Lake. This is a wide part of the river in which hundreds of hippos congregate. The Hippo Lake area is surrounded by seasonally flooded grasslands. During the visit, although the ground was mainly dry, the grasslands were teeming with huge flocks of birds.

During that single outing, Fleur and friends observed – on the sandbanks and mudflats at the river mouth – and estimated 400 Glossy Ibis, 400 Sooty Gulls, 2000 White-winged Terns and small numbers of terns (Gull-billed, Caspian, Lesser Crested, Roseate and Saunders’s)

Along the river banks and in the seasonally flooded grasslands they observed significant flocks of other birds including roughly 2000 Cattle Egrets, 100 Common Squacco Herons, 200 Yellow-billed Storks, 400 Spur-winged Plovers, 200 Collared Pratincoles and a group of 20 African Skimmers

They were also treated to gathering of scavengers at a carcass near Hippo Lake, consisting of about 2 Hooded Vultures, 6 African White-backed Vultures, 6 Rüppell’s Griffon Vultures and 2 Lappet-faced Vultures.

Carmine Bee-eaters were virtually everywhere.

“These brief observations confirm that the Tana River Delta is an extremely important area for large congregations of African and migratory waterbirds”, says Fleur in her e-mail

Fleur has offered to give me more comprehensive lists of birds found in the Delta which I hope to share with you in consequent blog posts.

As you can all see, we should not lose the Delta. Its too important.

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Category: Aberdares, IBAs, Lake Ol Bolossat, Wetlands, Wildlife | Date: Apr 03 2008 | By: admin

Last Friday I recieved a very encouraging email from my coleague Peter Odhiambo. It was in essence a forwarded email from within the ornithological department of the National Museums of Kenya. The email had in it the news that Lake Ol Bolossat - the only significant lake in Central Province of Kenya - had been accepted as the 61st Important Bird Area (IBA) for Kenya. This means that the lake will be recorgnised internationally as being a habitat for birds of global conservation concern.

This new status of the tiny wetland is yet to be published but it has been recieved well by those who care about conservation of biodiversity. The Water Hole is particularly elated given that we have continuously highlighted the plight of this unique wetland. Only recently, I highlighted the difficult time the lake was facing given the invasion of the Azolla weed. Not much has been done in this front but given the lake’s new status, we can expect that more attention will be paid to finding a lasting solution to the Azolla menace.

The IBA programme is run by Birdlife International and it aims to identify, monitor and protect a global network of IBAs for the conservation of the world’s birds and other biodiversity. “BirdLife Partners take responsibility for the IBA Programme nationally, with the BirdLife Secretariat taking the lead on international aspects and in some priority non-Partner countries.” (see IBAs). While in this site, you can follow the Africa link to learn more about Africa’s IBAs.

Lake Ol Bolossat’s ‘induction’ into the IBA list was the result of a National Liaison Committe on Kenya’s IBAs’ meeting held on 26 March 3008. During this meeting, a its case was presented to committee on the basis of the findings of an avifaunal research conducted in August 2007 led by NMK’s Assistant Research Scientist, Wanyoike Wamiti, and funded by the British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). This survey had recorded a number of birds of conservation concern at the site.

Ol Bolossat becomes the 7th IBA in Central Province of Kenya. The other six IBAs are: Aberdare Mountains, Kianyaga Valleys, Kikuyu Escarpment Forest, Kinangop Grasslands, Mt Kenya and the Mukurweini Valleys.

The Water Hole will be watching closely - and keeping you informed about - what this recognition will do for this important wetland.

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Category: Lake Natron, Wetlands, Wildlife | Date: Mar 31 2008 | By: admin

After the scare that the Lesser Flamingo (Phoenicopterus minor) could lose its only successful breeding site in East Africa, Lake Natron, it is a welcome gesture that the government of Kenya is finalizing a Species Action Plan (SAP) for this near-threatened (as per the IUCN Red List) bird, and that this plan is being done according to international guidelines.

How do I know this? Well, I spent last Wednesday and Thursday ‘embedded’ with the technical team that is working on producing this SAP. The two day meeting that I was attending was held at Merica Hotel in Nakuru, just a stone’s throw from the lake that has been made famous by the thousands of flamingos that feed there throughout the year - Lake Nakuru - providing an ambience befitting such a discussion.

The purpose of this meeting was to iron out some pending issues and adopt the draft plan after some changes. This - technically - happened and the plan adopted ‘pending suggested revisions’. In short, the plan is not ready yet but once the technical team sit together again, all they will need to do is to incorporate the changes that were suggested during this meeting.

So why does the Lesser Flamingo need an action plan? This spectacular bird of much ecological and economic value is already classified as Near-Threatened by the IUCN and - despite being the most numerous flamingo species on earth - it is likely to precipitate into the Threatened Species list in a time not so far away from the present. In Kenya, where the bird is largely confined to the Rift Valley soda lakes, the population fluctuates between 279,620 and 1,453,513 (estimates done annually in January).

While in Kenya, these migratory birds are threatened largely by degradation of their very specialized habitat by hydrology and water quality changes (changes in salts concentration in water affects the abundance of their food - microscopic cyanobacteria [algae] and lake bottom diatoms only found in alkaline lakes, saline lagoons and estuaries). This is the most critical threat and largely man-made.

Other threats of high importance, and which the Action Plan is treating with priority, include poisoning (by cyanobacteria toxins) and infectious diseases (such as avian cholera). There are of course other threats - albeit of lower importance but nevertheless significant - including salt extraction and the disturbance of breeding colonies by human activities. These two threats should make you remember the Lake Natron saga. Minor threats include predation, competition with other species for food, human disturbance of non-breeding populations among others.

The SAP is a 10-year plan that will be reviewed regularly over its term. It envisions the long-term survival of the East African population of the birds and contribute towards improving to the conservation status of the global population. specifically it aims at stabilizing the population size and contribute to consistency in distribution.

According to the plan, to get to this state of improved conservation status, Kenya will maintain all key sites in good ecological conditions, stop destruction key non-breeding sites and in sites where the birds have traditionally bred or attempted to breed, reducing the impact of poisoning and disease, creating a flamingo conservation network, and increasing the knowledge available on flamingo ecology (numbers, threats, values, and causes of die-offs).

The technical team is optimistic that this plan will harmonize ongoing conservation actions for this bird and constitute an effective domestication of the International Single Species Action Plan already developed.

The Water Hole hopes that regional issues that also affect the conservation of the flamingo in Kenya, such as the Lake Natron soda extraction project, will be effectively addressed through cooperation between Kenyan other governments in East Africa. It should be remembered that East Africa is home to the largest (75%) of the four recognized Lesser Flamingo populations of the world and hence the most important for conservation.

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Category: Sugar, Tana Delta, Wetlands, Wildlife | Date: Mar 13 2008 | By: admin

I thank all those who posted comments on my post on the Tana Sugar project yesterday. I am encouraged to see that we all would like to keep the Delta environmentally safe. I understand also that we might seem to be against ‘development’ and improving people’s livelihoods but I personally do not see how hiving off 20,000 ha of prime wetland will not affect the entire ecosystem. All I have heard about plantations suggests otherwise. Maybe there is a way that I don’t know of.

I just spoke to Peter Odhiambo, our Wetlands Programme Coordinator who’s also the point man at the Kenya Wetlands Forum (KWF) Secretariat and his opinion is that the comments that the government officers made during their visits are their own opinions. He sees a possibility that NEMA is committed to follow the law regarding environmental consequences of development projects. He is however suspicious as to the composition of the 10-man Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) that is reviewing the comments made against the EIA for the project, and of the fact that NEMA has kept the list away from the public eye.

He however revealed the names of half the team. These names were mentioned in a meeting on 29 February that a team representing the EAWLS/KWF held with NEMA. They include:
1. Prof R Mbuvi of the University of Nairobi (Chair)
2. Dr Njoka of the University of Nairobi
3. Mr Charles Mbara of the University of Nairobi
4. Mr Phillip Wandera of the Catholic University of East Africa, and
5. Anne Macharia of NEMA (Secretary)

Paula, in her comment to yesterdays post, asked who the experts were and I believe with this list your question is half answered. And Paula, I don’t know why KWS is doing an aerial survey. I believe that a full ecosystem (for the area consists of various wetland and forest habitats) assessment should be conducted by field biologists, wetlands experts and others and be weighted against the EIA report before any decision about the fate of the project is made.

What are our bargaining chips? We (EAWLS and KWF) have already submitted our comments to NEMA concerning the inadequacy of the EIA. We have even helped the local people (who mostly fear for the loss of their grazing lands) put their concerns on paper and present them to NEMA. At the moment I am not in possession of scientific reports that have shown the interdependence of the various habitats in keeping the Delta healthy. These would be quite weighty bargaining chips to use. I believe others may have research reports of this kind. Those who may be able to procure such should send them to the KWF.

Thank you Pechir (although I couldn’t trace your comments on Baraza) for the good work you are doing. Together we can ensure that the government sees the wisdom in keeping the Delta safe and should they proceed with the project, it is done in an environmentally viable way and that the plight of pastoralists is fully taken into account. That most ‘still wild’ areas of the world are to be found in pastoralists’ keep (e.g. the Mara) is itself a testimony that these people are good custodians of the natural world.

So, what next? For EAWLS and KWF, we are keeping track of all the steps of the process. As we await the outcome of the review of the comments on EIA, we still demand answers to some vexing questions that have remained unanswered.

This morning, Peter showed me a letter that our Executive Director, Mr Ali Kaka sent to Dr Mwinzi just before the latter went to the Delta over the weekend. The letter essentially voiced the concerns of EAWLS on the constitution of the TAC which I will explain in my next post. The EAWLS/KWF team of Hadley Becha, Dr George Wamukoya, Peter Odhiambo, Jael Ludeki and Rashida Suleiman had met with Mr B M Lang’wen, the Director for Compliance and Enforcement at NEMA. It was during this meeting that NEMA revealed the partial list of the TAC to us.

If you wish to write to the authorities, I suggest you write to Dr A Musya Mwinzi of NEMA on this address: Director General, NEMA, P O Box 67839, Nairobi, KENYA.

You can, in addition, help by donating to our campaigns fund.

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Category: Community, Sugar, Tana Delta, Wetlands, Wildlife | Date: Mar 12 2008 | By: admin

The Kenya Government is now using bait to diffuse local community protests to the proposal to convert some 20,000 hectares of the country’s prime wetland, Tana Delta wetlands, into a sugar plantation and the National Environmental Management Agency (NEMA) seems to have swallowed its share of bait already. The national press reports that NEMA’s Director General, Dr. Muusya Mwinzi, had visited the residents of the Delta last weekend in a mission - according to us at the Water Hole - to regurgitate some of this bait.

Dr Mwinzi was not alone, he was part of the train that the Permanent Secretary (PS) for Finance, Mr Joseph Kinyua, and his Regional Development counterpart, Mr David Stower, had hauled down to the Delta. They had with them a full basket of bait.

‘Mr Finance’ promised the locals that the government would loan them money to purchase at least 15% of the stake in the project, they will become outgrowers, and own a stake in the sugar producing company. The outgrowers will have 4,000 hectares out of the 20,000 ha that the project will put under sugarcane. They were promissed that 20,000 jobs would come out of the project, which, in his view, will support the livelihoods of 3-million people.

The project, according to the EIA I discussed in my previous post, is economically viable but presents serious environmental consequences. Pastoralists, like i said, are the ones most opposed among the communities as they see a huge chunk of their livestock’s pasture dissappearing. The PS Finance dismissed the pastoralists protests as having arisen from ‘excitement’ following the announcement of the project. He openly ‘gave the nod’ to the project.

Dr Mwinzi on the other hand, not wanting to openly chorus the sentiments of the PS, said that the EIA report that stands between the idea and the actualisation of the project is being harmonised by considering the comments that the public submitted to Nema (see previous post). To try and appear serious, he announced that he had constituted a committee of 10 ‘experts’ to review the comments and harmonise them with the EIA report before NEMA can endorse the project. He supported this argument by announcing that the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) would conduct an aerial survey to scope the effect of the project on wildlife before NEMA can finalise the EIA.

We suspect that with such heavy government baiting, the environment is likely to loose. The Kenya Wetlands Forum and EAWLS will however continue to put pressure on NEMA not to give the project an environmental ‘clean bill’ since it is obvious that there will be irreversible environmental damage should the project proceed. We will continue working with our allies within the community and to try and marshall international support to stop this potentially harmful ‘development’.

We need all the support we can get.

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