• Taita Taveta has plenty of water bodies but lacks water.
• Agriculture is shaky despite the presence of water bodies.
• Economic scarcity is the issue, not water scarcity.
• Water levels are depressed due to climate change.
• Several dams in the county have dried up, while others have shrunk in capacity.

By Lina Mwamachi

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 6 targets the world to meet water availability and sanitation needs by the year 2030. SDG number 13, Climate Action, aligns with the water goal. Both aim to be realized by the year 2030. The question is, will they be met?

In southeastern Kenya, climate change is affecting a water-rich county, which is struggling with access to clean water despite its plenty of water bodies.

Taita Taveta County number 006, lies quietly at the coastal part of Kenya and boasts of vast resources like dams, lakes, rivers and springs. It is sandwiched between two major national parks, Tsavo East and Tsavo West, which boost the economy of the county and Kenya as a whole through revenues from the tourism sector.

Lake Jipe, Lake Chala, Njoro springs, Mzima springs, River Lumi, and other water bodies supply the county with plenty of water, though water levels have gone down ‘slightly’ due to impacts of climate change. 

These water bodies, if well utilized and managed, could see the county contributing much from agriculture, which is the economic drive of the county. 

It’s ironic that despite the resource being in plenty, the county has a lot of water scarcity. Farmers in the county are struggling to obtain water after a dam that used to support 15,000 people dried up completely.

More than 100 kilometers from Voi town, Taita Taveta County, I ascend the hills of Taita to investigate the water situation. My first point is Mzazala Werugha, where I meet with farmers who have encroached and farmed inside the water canal that feeds Kishenyi dam. 

The water from the Kishenyi dam used to serve 15,000 residents of the lower part of the county.

The dam, which was constructed in 1959, has been helpful to residents in terms of large-scale agriculture, livestock, fishing and home use.

According to Solomon Kilambo, secretary of the Kishenyi Water Resource User Association, four villages dependent on the large 30.6-acre dam are now struggling to get water as they await for the desiltation of the dam, after the WRUA Association acquired 11 million shillings as a grant from the Water Trust Fund. The money is also intended to fast-track reforestation activities, help in distributing water lines to affected villages, and constructing the dam to ensure there is no seepage of water underneath or soil erosion on the dam banks.

Solomon stresses that rigorous human activities have contributed largely to drying up of Kishenyi dam and other water catchments in the county.

Farming along the dam banks, cutting down of indigenous trees, and burning of shrubs and charcoal along the dam have all contributed to land depletion and the drying up of the dam.

In the past, the areas around the dam grew reeds that helped in sieving and cleaning the water that flowed into the dam, as well as controlling soil from entering the dam. But once the reeds were destroyed, soil erosion from farming became rampant. When it rained, soil flowed into the dam, making the dam shallow and unable to hold water.

Now that the dam is dry, some farmers in Mzazala Werugha have sunk in boreholes inside the dried-up dam to obtain water for farming and home use, but they are not able to establish the safety of the water.

Richard Mwangeka, a farmer, says the changing weather patterns and little rainfall compelled them to sink boreholes to get water for irrigation and home use. 

“We have no choice but to farm inside the dried-up dam. There used to be many trees but all have been cut off so that we can farm here,” says Mwangeka.

Similarly, in Lauren Kambale’s farm, the situation is the same. Lauren cites that climate change and unpredictable rain seasons led them to taking actions which have slowly depleted the resources and led to land degradation all together.

Mwadime Mwamburi, a farmer in Kishushe, has also turned away from rainfed agriculture to water investing using water pans, which are shallow dams equipped and covered with black plastic bags to prevent seeping of water.

Failing of rainfall seasons for long has forced him to quit farming and engage in other alternative livelihoods like cattle and chicken rearing. 

Kishushe Area Chief Ethel Mwasi implores the county and national governments to make plans to establish more water sources that can be used for agriculture, home use and animals, both domestic and wild.

She asks the government to drill dams and boreholes and erect water pans and check dams along gulleys that flow water into the Indian Ocean.

Simon Thuo, a Consultant at Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, East Africa region, says water plays a crucial role in climate change and drought in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Thuo cites that the water table has decreased from 60 to 300 meters in places like Nairobi County, attributing the change to an increased number of boreholes driven by the growing population.

He adds that Kenya should emulate how Ethiopia invested in watershed management. The model includes capturing runoff water through small dams and also utilizing subsurface water and reducing degradation of land by increasing vegetation cover.

Tha Taita Taveta Governor, who is also the chairman of the Water, Natural Resources Management and Forestry Committee at the Council of Governors, together with the national government PS Dr. Paul Kiprono, Ministry of Water and Sanitation, have begun deliberating on water projects to be undertaken by the national government in the county.

The two governments aim to strengthen their collaboration to implement water projects in Taita Taveta county amid ravaging drought occasioned by depressed rainfall.

First, they plan to implement the Njoro Kubwa and Mzima 2 water projects, which seek to develop water infrastructure from the Njoro-Kubwa and Kitobo springs and build a massive 50-kilometer water distribution pipeline. The county government is still in the planning process with investors for the projects, which aim to increase water production from 15 to 60 million liters per day.

Is it really water scarcity? Professor Boubacar Barry, a scientist on water issues in East Africa, says where there are plenty of water resources and it’s evident there is scarcity of the resource, then it’s not water scarcity but instead economic scarcity.

“Water is finite; we cannot increase it, rather we can make good use of it sustainably,”

Boubacar adds.

Access to Water in Taita Taveta County

According to data from the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census as compiled by InfoNile, only about 36 percent of households in Taita Taveta county accessed piped water by that year, while about 15 percent still acquired water directly from rivers and streams. About 5 percent got their water from boreholes and 1 percent from dams and lakes.

In Kenya overall, about 3 percent of households acquired water from dams or lakes in 2019, the census found. This percentage was higher (5 percent) in rural areas.

Not only in Taita Taveta

Water levels are going down not only in Taita Taveta but also in several other reservoirs and dams in the country. A recent visit to Thika dam-Ndakaini and Sasumua in South Kinangop Kenya, which contribute to supplying Nairobi county with water, established that water levels are going down in these dams as well. 

Scientists attribute the challenges to climate change and rigorous human activities. 

According to Engineer Job Kihumba, the managing director at the Thika (Ndakaini) dam, the dam has a storage capacity of 70 million cubic meters and delivers about 230,000 cubic meters of water per day to Nairobi, which makes up 84 percent of the water supply of Nairobi county. However, Thika is supplemented from other supply dams, which are also in bad condition. Kihumba cites that the dam is now at 56 percent capacity, which is quite low in terms of sustainable capacity.

Professor Boubacar says the economic scarcity puzzle can only be solved by the government, by putting firm measures and resources to enable its citizens to tap the water well in different ways so as to sustain themselves with the available water resource.

The story is done by Lina Mwamachi with the help of Water Sector and Africa 21. Editorial support and data visualization by Annika McGinnis, InfoNile.