Shared Waters, Shared Opportunities: Hydropolitics in East Africa

A Happy Marriage of Traditional and Modern Knowledge -Shallow Wells: A Sustainable and Inexpensive Alternative to Boreholes in Kenya?

201 A Happy Marriage of Traditional and Modern Knowledge Shallow Wells: A Sustainable and Inexpensive Alternative to Boreholes in Kenya? Prof. Marcel Rutten Introduction Worldwide,theuseofwaterisrisingfasterthanthegrowthoftheworldpopulation. In the 1900-90 periods the world population increased from 1.7 billion to 5.5 billion people while the total consumption of water went up by a factor 10 from 500 to 5,000 cubic kilometers. This explosive rise is not just due to a higher human consumption of water. The consumption of food, roughly estimated to be 1 litre of water per calorie and the improvement in water provision should be held responsible for this. In the period up to 2050 the total human population on earth is expected to grow to total some 8.5 billion. Africa, especially, will see a population boom resulting in this continent becoming the most water stressed continent. In addition, climate experts are warning that large regions of Africa will receive less rainfall in the decades ahead. However, whether people will have access to water is not just an issue of a physical or even financial nature. Other, maybe even more pressing, issues are at stake as well. In this article, our attention is directed towards the way political, juridical and economic processes interact and contribute to an upsurge of the pressure on natural water sources and ground water reserves available in Africa. This will be done in particular by portraying the water situation in semi-arid Kajiado District in southern Kenya. Our attention will focus on a comparison of the variety of efforts proposed and implemented to solve the numerous problems in water provision in the area. In particular, we will discuss two types of water facilities: boreholes and shallow wells. Water Problems in Kajiado District The availability of water in Kajiado is of major importance. First, the erratic and unreliable precipitation is a major limiting factor for practising cultivation and for keeping livestock. The hills and valleys have a significant effect on the annual rainfall.Near the hills precipitation is high (800-1,000 mm), while in the low lying savannah we experience less rainfall (300-500 mm). Second, the water structures in this area are varied and include (perennial) rivers, natural wells and depressions, human made reservoirs (pans), dams (up and sub-surface), modern and traditional shallow wells, boreholes and piped water. 202 The Maasai pastoralists who have inhabited this area for centuries consider the lack of water (enkare) primarily as a problem for their herds and less as a matter of concern for human consumption.The herders and their livestock will in general settle within a radius of 5 km from a water point. During the dry season, though one has to search for new pastures. The availability of groundwater in the neighbouring areas during these dry seasons is crucial as the geographical distance and physical condition of the animals necessitates drinking every other or even third day. During the wet season the animals will spread out, making use of the new grass and fresh surface water in the pools, riverbeds, dams etc. When the dry season returns, livestock will once again return to the neighbouring wetlands and higher terrain. It is in precisely these areas that competition with other economic activities, cultivation and wildlife parks, has increased in the last decennium. History of Maasai Land Ownership in Kenya The history of the Maasai is one of a constantly decreasing territory, both in quantitative and qualitative sense. In the footsteps of the Scottish geologist and explorer Joseph Thomson – the first European who managed to cross Maasai land in 1883/4 – Britain and Germany struggled over the hegemony of this area. The outcome of this battle was a subdivision of the Maasai territory. The northern Maasai were placed under the rule of the British ‘East Africa Protectorate’ and the southern Maasai under that of GermanTanganyika.The British authorities signed two treaties with representatives of the Maasai in 1904 and 1911, respectively. As a result, the Kenyan Maasai saw a reduction of their pre-colonial territory, measuring some 60-70,000 km2 , by approximately 40%. 203 Kajiado District: Semi-arid area in Southern Kenya Kajiado District has been subdivided into three new districts since 2009 The losses in a qualitative sense are even more serious. The Reserve set aside for the Maasai in southern Kenya had vast areas characterised by lack of water and grass. The boundary of the Maasai Reserve is...