News Analysis by Leo Odera Omolo
Kenya and Tanzania have agreed to team up together in a joint concerted effort t save Mara River which experts says is on the verge of drying due to wanton destruction of its most important water catchment, which is the Mau Forest.
Human settlement and illegal loggers and squatters have depleted the Mau Forest, which is one of the most important water towers in the region.
The two countries have jointly earmarked colossal amount of money to the tune of Kshs 978 million. The moneys are to be utilized towards the improvement of the Mara River infrastructure.
The environmentally important Mara River originated in the Mau Forest in the Southwester of the expansive Rift Valley Province and traverses through the common bores f the two countries before emptying its waters in Lake Victoria in the Tanzania’s northwestern region of Mara near the lakeside town of Musoma.
This particular river is economically valued by the two African nations because it is also supporting two important tourist attraction centers, and also supports two most valuable National Game Pars on both sides, namely Mara Game Reserve in Kenya and the world famous Serengeti National Game Park on the Tanzanian side of the border.
The two governments and NGO organizations operating in the two countries are to partner with the residents and communities living around the Mara ecosystem to sensitize them on the need to stop polluting the river.
The program wile implemented through the Lake Victoria Basin Commission {LVBC} which will coordinate and manage the entire project of rehabilitating the river. The LVBC is an institution o the East African Community {EAC}.
The comprehensive plan to rehabilitate the Mara River was disclosed recently b Coordinator of the Nile Equatorial Basin Subsidiary Action Program Antoine Sendama during the Mara Day celebrations held at Mulot Trading Center in Narok North district. The function was attended by top government officials from both Kenya and Tanzania. They included cabinet ministers and permanent secretaries,
The depletion the Mau Forest had already started spelling dooms for the reforestation n the to countries
The executive secretary of the Kisumu-based LVBC Consius Kamangire told the gathering that the Mara River was a disaster in waiting which must be averted at all costs.
Kenya and Tanzania have already started wildlife and water conservation, farming with communities around the Maasai Game Reserve and strategy to bring to a halt with time rapidly ruing out.
Sendama said NELSAP was formed 10 years ago and Mara River was identified as area of the trams boundary river basin management project to be prepared and implemented under the program.
In attendance w Kenya’s Minister for the East African Community Affairs Musa Sirma and the Permanent Secretary in the Tanzanian Ministry of East African Community affairs George Luwao .
Sirma told his audience that the Mara River Day celebrations was meant to promote trans boundary management framework for the Mara River.
The two nation which are partners in the EAC through the LVBC plans to improve protection and management of Mau Forest and conserve the Maasai Mara Game Reserve and Serengeti National Game Park ecosystem.
The main objectives of the program ensuring household food security increasing farms income and alleviation of poverty through increase access to water for household consumption and agricultural production. This include achieving river basin conservation and rehabilitation of new projects including multipurpose project like Tanzania irrigation and watershed management projects in Gucha, Migori, Yala and Nzoia Rivers.
The program is also meant to promoting co-operative management of shared water reservoirs in a bid to demonstrate benefit of cooperation and sustainable investment projects.
Mara River was losing chunk of its waters due to climate change and vulnerability. The climate change will affect on the residents way of life and threatened the very foundation on which the region’s economies rest..It will affect impact negatively in food and energy security to high temperature through flood and veritable rainfall.
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