Lakes Nakuru, Elementaita and Bogoria
Kenyan authorities have announced several measures to save three major lakes in the country's Rift valley province from extinction. Lakes Nakuru, Elementaita and Bogoria have been experiencing a decline in their water levels due to destruction of their watersheds.
The measures announced include the development of a Catchment Management Strategy; to assist in the development of workable management plans for the threatened watersheds. The authorities also plan the formulation of management strategies to assist in the monitoring, rehabilitation and conservation of the lakes.
Plans are to establish Water Resource Users Associations for all the rivers draining into the endangered lakes, in a bid to improve the management of water resources. Conservationists have also planned several capacity building forums on environmental management and conservation techniques for members of the Water Resource Users Associations, while water allocation plans are being developed and prioritized.
The Ministry of Water and irrigation also plans to rehabilitate river-gauging stations, while the drafting of several management based Memorandums of Understanding between the management of Lakes Nakuru and Bogoria and the government was at an advanced stage. The Government also announced the arrest and prosecution of several persons found destroying the watersheds in an on-going crackdown on people illegally diverting water from rivers feeding the threatened lakes.
33 people have been arrested, 24 prosecuted and two jailed for three months each, while 38 water pumps had been confiscated and five illegal gravity pipelines removed.
February 27, 2007 6:49 AM | Category: Lake, Watershed