Prime resource and habitat under threat

GIRAFFES graze among the lakeshore vegetation, monkeys howl from treetops, buffalos dip in the swamps while hippos cool off in the shallows.

This is Lake Naivasha, one of prime centres for wildlife and horticulture in Africa.

Over 400 species of bird live around Kenya’s second largest freshwater lake. Its shores in the 1960s were also home to Joy Adamson, author of Born Free, the book and award-winning film about a couple raising a lion cub.

But in recent years the unregulated use of Lake Naivasha’s waters, a population boom and the introduction of foreign species and damaging materials into its basin have all threatened its existence.

Its pristine waters of 30 years ago have disappeared and scientists now fear, before long, it could be a poisonous smelly pond, with poor inhabitants struggling to live along its barren shores.

Many blame the flower industry which has flourished in the region since the 1990s. Others say the fault lies with cattle and vegetable farmers abusing river waters and catchments running into Naivasha’s basin.

Between 140 and 170 sq km in area, depending on water levels, the lake has seen increased use since Kenya’s independence in 1963.

David Harper, a senior lecturer at Leicester University, has studied it for 20 years. He recently found its water level was around three metres less than 1970s levels.

Its surrounding population since colonial days has also surged from a few thousand people to over 500,000, many of whom have migrated to its shores due to the lure of employment on flower farms.

Dr Harper says the introduction of foreign plants and species of fish, including the Louisiana crayfish, have thrown the lake’s ecology into chaos. Other changes around its shores have choked up the waters with damaging nutrients and bacteria.

The ecological changes, some accidental but many manmade, mean the lake threatens to be covered by microscopic and potentially poisonous bacteria. A blue- green algae is developing that “produces toxins that kill dogs and sheep and occasionally humans,” says Dr Harper.

But what about water usage? Alone, Naivasha flower farms use a conservatively estimated 30 billion litres of the lake’s water annually. That’s around 82.5 million litres of lake water a day, which mostly feeds roses destined for the European market, including Irish supermarkets and street sellers.

Farm pipes are dotted along the shore, running for up to 12 hours a day.

A number of farms, one employing thousands of workers on hundreds of acres, are also growing their roses inside the lake’s riparian zone. This is an area between the land and surface water, traditionally seen as a buffer zone preventing contaminated run-offs of chemicals or other substances sliding into the lake.

Lake Naivasha conservationists now face an uphill battle to keep the once-unspoiled waters from drying up and turning into a poisonous putrid pool.