Kenya: Locals set to rescue Ken Dam

  1. Posted on Tuesday 20 October 2009 - 18:01
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    Neville Omondi, VoicesofAfrica alumnus in Nairobi, Kenya
    Ken Dam is a small dam with half the size of a football. It is used as a fish farm by a local group composed of people around it. The dam's waters are reducing fast because of the human activities. The waters are diverted into small tunnels to their crop farms. The groups leader, Mr Kimani shows the earlier size of the dam, its only a half of what it used to be.
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    He says that the depletion of water from this dam will not only affect the community's drinking water source but also the survival of the fish they keep in it. The fish farm is the group's sole source of income and of water. Other member are already leaving as their hopes of an avarage harvest is getting dimmer. They are now seeking other alternatives as their once flourishing fish farm is now unreliable.

    Tree Is Life Trust is working with the group and the local community to help protect the dam and plant tree seedlings. The organization has also given the group a fishing net which will help harvest more fish than the traditional was of using hooks.

    Ken dam was initially a cattle dip made by a white settler named Ken back in the pre-colonial times. After the colonial era they dam which had already increased its water because of the crater-like land formation was reclaimed by the group.

    Kenya has been facing drought until recently. The main reason is that it hasn’t rained for months. Many natural sources of water were affected.

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