Date: Tue, 8 Aug 1995 02:26:43 GMT From: Tom Gray Subject: KENYA-ENVIRONMENT: A LAKE SLOWLY DIES To: Multiple recipients of list ACTIV-L /* Written 4:09 PM Aug 7, 1995 by newsdesk in igc:ips.english */ Copyright 1995 InterPress Service, all rights reserved. Worldwide distribution via the APC networks. *** 04-Aug-95 *** Title: KENYA-ENVIRONMENT: A LAKE SLOWLY DIES BY CHARLES WACHIRA NAIVASHA, KENYA, AUG 4 (IPS) - HERDS OF COWS NOW GRAZE ON WHAT USED TO BE PART OF THE BED OF LAKE NAIVASHA, LOCATED ABOUT 1,900 METRES ABOVE SEA LEVEL IN KENYA'S RIFT VALLEY PROVINCE. ''I HAVE WATCHED THE LAKE RECEDE IN THE LAST TEN YEARS,'' SAYS FRANKLIN LITONDO, A LECTURER AT THE NAIVASHA WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES TRAINING INSTITUTE. A STONE WALL THAT ONCE SERVED AS A LANDING PLACE FOR FISHING BOATS NOW STANDS ON DRY LAND. SO DOES A SHED FROM WHICH WATER USED TO BE PUMPED TO THE INSTITUTE'S FISHERIES ANNEXE. ACCORDING TO LITONDO, BOTH NEED TO BE EXTENDED A FURTHER 30 METERS IF THEY ARE TO BE OF ANY USE. HE AND OTHER EXPERTS BLAME THE SHRINKING WATER LEVELS IN THE LAKE, WHICH IS ABOUT 60 KM NORTHEAST OF NAIROBI, ON A NEARBY POWER STATION AS WELL AS COMMERCIAL VEGETABLE AND FLOWER FARMS, WHICH HAVE ALSO POLLUTED NAIVASHA'S WATERS. SAYS HENRY MUHINDI, A COMMUNITY WILDLIFE OFFICER AT NAIVASHA: ''THE PROBLEM IS THAT THESE FARMS HAVE BEEN USING TOO MUCH WATER FROM THE LAKE SYSTEM FOR IRRIGATION AND USING PESTICIDES ON THEIR CROPS.'' THE PESTICIDES END UP IN THE LAKE, ACCORDING TO MUHINDI. LAKE NAIVASHA HAS SUFFERED ALMOST IN SILENCE. MUCH LESS HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT THE PROBLEMS OF THE TINY INLAND SEA (LESS THAN 200 SQ.KM IN SIZE) THAN THOSE OF EAST AFRICA'S LARGER INLAND WATERWAYS, SUCH AS LAKE VICTORIA. HOWEVER, NAIVASHA, WHICH IS HOME TO MORE THAN 20,000 WATERFOWL AND ABOUT 400 HIPPOPOTAMI, IS NO LESS UNDER THREAT THAN ITS LARGER COUNTERPARTS. ALIEN PLANT SPECIES LIKE THE WATER HYACINTH, WHICH HAS FOUND ITS WAY INTO MANY AFRICAN WATERWAYS AFTER BEING BROUGHT TO THE CONTINENT FROM SOUTH AMERICA, HAVE MULTIPLIED RAPIDLY IN THE SMALL KENYAN LAKE. BY COVERING THE SURFACE OF THE WATER, THE WATER HYACINTH REDUCES THE LIGHT AND OXYGEN THAT MARINE ANIMALS DEPEND ON. THE KENYA AGRICULTURE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (KARI) HAS INTRODUCED BEETLES IMPORTED FROM BENIN TO FIGHT IT, BUT THEIR EFFECT HAS NOT BEEN MADE PUBLIC. =-' IF THE WATER HYACINTH MENACE WERE NOT ENOUGH, THE COYPU, A SOUTH AMERICAN WATER RAT WHOSE FUR IS HIGHLY PRIZED, MYSTERIOUSLY APPEARED IN THE LAKE THREE YEARS AGO AND NOW COMPETES WITH INDIGENOUS MARINE ANIMALS FOR FOOD. AND MANY OF THE FISH SPECIES FOUND IN THE LAKE UP TO THE 1960S, SOME OF WHICH EXISTED NOWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD, HAVE BECOME EXTINCT SINCE THE TILAPIA WAS INTRODUCED THERE, ACCORDING TO BASS HELVOORT, WHO LECTURERS IN WETLAND ECOLOGY AT THE NAIVASHA WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES TRAINING INSTITUTE. LAKE NAIVASHA WAS ONE OF THE FIRST SITES IN AFRICA TO FALL UNDER THE 1971 RAMSAR CONVENTION, AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL TREATY ADOPTED IN IRAN THAT PROVIDES A FRAMEWORK FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON BEHALF OF THE WORLD'S WETLANDS. ''KENYA IS THEREFORE CHARGED WITH ENSURING THAT ITS WETLANDS ARE MAINTAINED FROM OVER-SIPHONING, SILTATION, POLLUTION'' AND DRYING UP, SAYS HELVOORT. MUCH WILL DEPEND, THOUGH, ON THE LARGE LANDOWNERS AROUND THE LAKE, WHO CONTRIBUTE HEAVILY TO THE TWO MILLION U.S. DOLLARS KENYA EARNS EACH YEAR FROM THE GREENS AND FLOWERS IT EXPORTS, MAINLY TO EUROPE. THE FARMERS THEMSELVES APPEAR TO HAVE FINALLY REALISED THAT THEY STAND TO LOSE IF NOTHING IS DONE TO SAVE THE LAKE. ''WE ARE DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT, IN FACT WE HAVE ORGANISED A MEETING WITH THOSE CONCERNED TO DISCUSS THE LAKE,'' SAYS SARAH HIGGINS, SECRETARY OF THE RIPARIAN OWNERS ASSOCIATION IN NAIVASHA. (END/IPS/CW/KB/95) Origin: Harare/KENYA-ENVIRONMENT/ ---- [c] 1995, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved May not be reproduced, reprinted or posted to any system or service outside of the APC networks, without specific permission from IPS. This limitation includes distribution via Usenet News, bulletin board systems, mailing lists, print media and broadcast. For information about cross- posting, send a message to . For information about print or broadcast reproduction please contact the IPS coordinator at . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This information excerpted from EcoNet, a nonprofit online system * * specializing in environmental issues. For further information on * * EcoNet membership, send any message to . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Also see the EcoNet web server: http://www.igc.apc.org/