How can Kenya drought-proof its economy?

Recent flash floods in Kenya, some of them fatal, highlight the urgent need to improve the country’s water infrastructure, especially drainage. But we must also see this in context. Short heavy downpours are all that is left of the rainy season in many parts of the country, as elsewhere in East Africa. These occasional excesses of water should not divert us from a far greater challenge – persistent drought.

Kenya is East Africa’s economic powerhouse, registering growth of 6.1% in 2012 and around 5% in 2013 and 2014. Drought has held the economy back, in particular impacting the agriculture, tourism and power sectors. Growth should rise to 6.9% this year, but if there were increased rainfall over a protracted period, the economy would be expected to expand even faster.

That will be nature’s choice, and recent history points to continuing drought. It isn’t nature that makes the lack of water dangerous however, but people.

When we do not invest in sufficient water storage, when we do not manage demand in response to changes in supply, we create the problem that has become the status quo, not only in Kenya, but in many parts of Africa and other parts of the world.

In the Sao Paulo region of Brazil for example, growing demand for water has stretched storage capacities to the limit, leading to severe scarcity. Deterioration of the forested watersheds around the Cantareira system, from which the state capital draws its water, has caused greater sedimentation, further reducing available storage capacity.

Meanwhile California’s over-reliance on groundwater has led to a declining water table, which, in turn, impacts surface water flows. These changes affect ecosystems that are critical to maintaining the landscape’s ability to adapt to changes in rainfall. There we have seen clearly that simply drilling more boreholes does not address the challenge of declining municipal water supply.

In Kenya, it is in the east and north that drought has hit hardest. Wajir County, for example, received less than two thirds of its average rainfall between October and December last year. As the climate changes due to global warming, rainfall will probably become even more irregular and difficult to predict, and the impacts of drought that we see today will become more damaging.

Kenya is taking valuable action to address poverty and increase the resilience of the most impacted communities. But in the long run, we will have to find a way to better cater for the demands of a growing population, and operating within the limits of the natural water cycle.

There are two key ways in which this can be done. First, we need reliable data.

A remarkable feature of California’s water crisis has been the lack of information on the use of ground water, especially at the level of individual wells. Likewise in Kenya, we need to know how much water is available and how much is being consumed by whom, in line with the well-known saying, “what you don’t measure you cannot manage”.

Second, we need investment in infrastructure – not only physical infrastructure such as dams, reservoirs, wells and pipelines – but also smart and targeted investments in “green water collection infrastructure”.

An example of this is the Nairobi Water Fund, Africa’s first, which was launched earlier this year with the support of The Nature Conservancy. This is helping to reverse degradation of the Tana river system on which 95% of the capital’s water supply depends.

Scientific analysis found that conservation efforts like terracing and tree-planting along its banks reduce erosion of silt and soil, so that more clean water can flow down to the reservoir, reducing clean up costs for local businesses. Investing in nature can therefore save businesses money.

Backed by companies including East African Breweries Ltd,  Coca-Cola, Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) and KenGen, the Fund is expected to generate US$21.5 million in increased yields and water management savings over 30 years, against a US$10 million initial investment.

Water is high on the agenda once again at this week’s World Economic Forum meeting on Africa. If we are to locate a sustainable balance between supply and demand for water, in Kenya and elsewhere, leaders will have to recognize the investment opportunities offered by nature.

This article is published in collaboration with Standard Digital. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author:  Eddy Njoroge is President of the Nairobi Water Fund. Dr. Giulio Boccaletti is the Global Managing Director of Water at The Nature Conservancy.

Image: A view of a partially dried-up pond at a village of Guangnan county. REUTERS/Stringer.