With Nairobi’s population growing at almost 3% annually and water
availability decreasing more rapidly as a result of climate change, the city
and its four million residents face a serious challenge. More than 90% of
Nairobi’s water and at least 60% of its electricity come from the Tana River.
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| School boys enjoying spring water in Maragua sub watershed. Photo: Fred Kihara |
The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a global
not-for-profit organization, is working with 18 public and private partners,
including Coca-Cola, East African Breweries, KENGEN and the Water Resources
Management Authority (WRMA), to proactively address Kenya’s water scarcity
issues by bringing the Water Fund model to Kenya. Over the past 12 years TNC
has worked with partners in Latin America to create 32 Water Funds that now
help to conserve water sources for tens of millions of people. The Nairobi
Water Fund, started in 2012, marks the first for Africa.
The Water Fund model engages large, downstream
users, usually corporations and utilities, that willingly contribute to a water
conservation fund as a way of shoring up their business investments. Revenues
generated by the water conservation fund are then used to help pay for
water-smart management practices, such as tree-planting and terracing, on
upstream lands that filter and regulate the water supply. A healthy watershed
reduces water treatment costs, minimizes water shortages and enhances
communities’ ability to adapt to climate change.
For the Nairobi Water Fund, TNC has completed a
feasibility study, launched pilot conservation projects in three priority watersheds
– Maragua, Sagana and Thika- Chania, all of which are important for Nairobi’s
water and power supplies – developed environmental and socio-economic
monitoring programs and formed a high-powered Steering Committee.
Over the next five years, the goal is to
capitalize Nairobi’s water conservation fund and increase watershed
conservation upstream efforts to further reduce sedimentation and water
treatment costs. As sedimentation decreases through improved land management
practices, so too will water treatment costs, which allows organizations like
WRMA and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to channel
more of their resources into efforts that improve treatment and distribution
systems. Ultimately, the aim is to develop a replicable tool that can be used
to ensure good water quality, adequate supply, lower treatment and distribution
costs and reliable power in other parts of Africa.
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| Land owners implementing soil conservation measures in Upper Tana. Photo credit: Fred Kihara |
More
information about Water Funds can be found in The Nature Conservancy’s Water Fund Manual or A Primer for Monitoring
Water Funds
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