Popularity of boreholes is a timely wakeup call for Kenyans

It has now become fashionable to tout residential properties containing boreholes as the ultimate standard to consider while deciding where to purchase or build a property. This development should make Kenyans very afraid. If we dig deeper (no pan intended) into this recent development, we discover a distressing link between the increasing need for boreholes and the accelerated degeneration of our natural ecosystem.

Such destruction is the result of past failure by the authorities to enforce regulations relating to the conservation of our natural heritage, particularly our main water towers, forests, wetlands, rivers and lakes. When the negative impacts of ongoing climate change are thrown into this mix, the emerging picture is truly frightening.

What we are never told by those popularising boreholes is that each additional one being sunk today has to be deeper than those sunk earlier as our groundwater reserves get gradually depleted. In other words, the rate at which extraction of groundwater is taking place is higher than how fast aquafers are getting recharged.

Consider this. Kenya’s forest cover has reduced from 12 per cent in 1960 to about seven per cent today. This area is larger than Mandera County, which is Kenya’s sixth largest. This reduction of forest cover has mainly been the result of wanton deforestation, overgrazing and illegal encroachment of forests by squatters, conveniently overlooked or facilitated for political reasons, as well as failure to enforce policies that oblige the government and individuals to plant and nurture trees.

The truism that we should “think globally but act locally” when it comes to matters environment has never been more appropriate as a “prescription” to Kenyans than it is today.

Fortunately, there is silver lining around this looming grim scenario if we act with urgency now.  This will require taking certain actions at government and individual level to drastically reduce the potential threats to our ecosystem assets.

A commendable development is that the Government, through its relevant authorities, particularly the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, has intensified efforts in environmental conservation, particularly since 2010, when the current Constitution was promulgated. The Constitution, in the Bill of Rights, recognises a sustainable, clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right. Vision 2030, which was developed three years earlier in 2007, envisages Kenya being a middle income country whose citizens enjoy a clean environment with a good quality of life.

In 2010, Kenya developed the National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS 2010), possibly a first in sub-Saharan Africa. In the course of 2012, the country embarked on a year-long consultative and participatory process to come up with the National Climate Change Action Plan (2013 – 2017) intended to put the NCCRS into action. And in December 2015, Kenya joined the global community in signing the Paris Agreement and developed its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution towards reducing dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. The National Adaptation Plan (2015 – 2030) was developed the same year.

Last year, the Climate Change Act (2016) was enacted after a process that begun in 2014. The Act creates a Climate Change Council chaired by the President, underscoring the level of commitment to combating the scourge.

As this has been taking place, the Government has stepped up a campaign to restore Kenya’s forest cover targeting at least a 10 per cent extent, including requiring land owners to ensure the same percentage of their land is covered with trees.

As I write, there is an intensified effort by a range of actors with the Ministry of Environment taking lead, to ensure that all these laws and policies will become integrated within individual plans of all the 47 counties.

The success of these efforts, particularly protecting Kenya’s five water towers namely: the Aberdares, Mt. Kenya, the Mau, Cherangany and Mt. Elgon, will depend on not only on the national and county governments taking action, but also individual citizens, be they urban or rural dwellers.

The required environmental conservation initiatives should collectively contribute towards the recharging of water aquifers, reducing the harmful impacts of climate change and restoring the capacity of Kenya’s natural ecosystem to attract rainfall.

If this happens, borehole water will cease being seen as a sign of affluence but as an indictment that the present generation is guilty of destroying a rich natural ecosystem conferred to it to as custodians of the country’s natural heritage for future generations.