Environment

Fear of diseases, loss of water sources, loss of huge tracts of land under irrigation and fish farms, temporary collapse of KALRO-Kiboko research centre are some of the challenges residents of Kiboko area, Makueni County, have to contend with following a massive oil spill from the new oil pipeline by Kenya Pipeline Company.

The spilled oil is feared to have infiltrated into Kiboko river, the major source of water to area residents which besides domestic uses is used for medium scale horticulture and aquafarming.

Although the spillage was discovered on March 30th,2019, it is feared that this might have started immediately after laying of the 450KM Mombasa-Nairobi pipeline late last year.

Acting KPC Managing Director Hudson Andambi says a point of weakness in the pipeline might have been caused by a large boulder hitting it during backfilling of the pipeline trench, which overtime developed into a crack letting out thousands of gallons of oil.

Those not entirely convinced by this theory believe that the leakage could also have resulted from a malicious puncturing of the pipeline by vandals intending to siphon oil from the line.

Without any installed digital or electronic leakage detectors, the leakage is feared to have gone on for days on end until 30th March 2019 when an officer of the Water Resource Users Association (WRUA) Kiboko, on routine patrol discovered it.

In a meeting of top KPC managers led by the MD, Makueni County Government led by Governor Kivutha Kibwana and the affected community on Tuesday at Kiboko, several measures to address the menace were outlined.

Among these include Human and livestock longitudinal study on the possible impact of the hydrocarbons to their health; Joint testing by all stakeholders for possible water pollution by oil, grease, Total Petroleum Hydrocarborns (TPH), and Benzene, Toluene, Ethyl benzene & Xylene (BTEX).

The meeting also saw formation of a taskforce that will spearhead provision of water for domestic use and livestock as well as environmental cleanup by the polluter.

Governor Kibwana who scolded the KPC officials for mishandling the compensation and cleanup exercise of Thange oil spill still within the county two years ago said KPC was taking the oil spill disaster lightly while it posed grave danger to the health and livelihoods of area residents.

 “We are staring at dangers of cancer and grounding of huge economic activities, the only source of livelihoods for thousands of residents.” Said the governor.

 “These two oil spills are a disaster so atrocious that it can even attract legal suit at the International Court of Justice. We may be forced to look that direction because we seem not to get local solutions,” the governor said further.

He said the County Government would write to KPC and the ministry of Petroleum demanding for restoration of the water sources or compensation for loss of livelihoods for the period the affected farms would lay forlorn with a fixed time frame.

Kibwana said the Thange oil leakage experience had shown that KPC has little regard for humanity despite millions of shillings it makes from the same people.

Counties have been urged to move into action towards addressing the adverse effects of climate change as time is ripe to shift to implementation of the existing climatic policies.

African Centre for Technology Studies Head of Climate Change Programme Dr Joanes Atela said that we have many crucial policies on climate change but of more paramount is to put them into action.

 “There is an abundance of climate policies. This is crucial, but perhaps more important now is to shift focus to the implementation of the policies. We need to explore innovative approaches, and document such, that would contribute to effectively addressing the effects of climate challenge,” Atela stated.

Atela further noted that to effectively address climate change, focus now should be on fostering concerted efforts saying that everyone has a part to play in tackling the climate change menace.

Atela Said: “Effectively addressing climate change requires all hands on deck. Each of you holds the key to a crucial piece of the puzzle.”

Dr. Atela spoke on Wednesday during the mapping and upscaling of climate change action in Kenya conference held at Wote in Makueni County.

The two-day workshop which attracted delegates from the 47 counties seeks to map and catalyze the extent of climate action in Kenya counties, and foster peer learning on how to catalyze and scale climate action in the country.

Makueni Deputy Governor Adelina Mwau who officially opened the conference stated that the county had made some major milestones towards combating climate change.

She observed that the county has constructed  sand dams in major rivers, banned sand harvesting in rivers and promoted water harvesting through several initiatives, among them the merry go round program for buying group members water tanks among other interventions within Makueni.

Planning Principal Secretary Dr Julius Muia has warned over irregular harvesting of trees saying it was contributing to harsh environmental conditions currently experienced in Makueni County.

He said the irregular harvests had led to the decreasing woodlots making Ukambani a victim of harsh climatic situations during both rain and sunny seasons.

The PS said that unsustainable harvesting of wood has led to degradation of forests causing the escalation of deforestation, increasing Green House Gas Emissions and land degradation.

He also indicated that water catchment areas are also drying up and timber and charcoal are becoming very expensive.

“We are cutting trees more than we are planting and this has caused several effects like degradation of forests and drying up of water catchment areas,” Dr Muia said.

The PS spoke during the Makueni county afforestation drive at Nduundune primary and secondary schools in Emali.

The Planning PS was accompanied by the county First Lady  Nazi Kivutha,officials from Kenya Forestry Service and  several representatives from  various development partners who also  took part in planting approximately 30,000 trees in the area.

Dr. Muia further indicated that the county is in arid and semi-arid zone of Kenya and proposed the initiation of a sustainable Citizen Centered Afforestation and Conservation Initiative that will encourage every village to have a big tree nursery as well as support watering and caring.

“We all know that Makueni is not favoured by climate therefore it is important for us to innovate an appropriate program that will support afforestation despite the foregoing weather challenges,” said the PS.

Nazi who also took part in the drive called upon everyone and especially pupils to plant trees on annual basis revealing that together with Governor Kivutha Kibwana they had already planted 800 trees in their home during the current wet season.

“I urge all our pupils to treat trees as their pets and plant a tree every year. The governor and I have planted 800 trees this season,” Nazi stated.

Her sentiments were echoed by Makueni County Commissioner Mohammed Maalim who also present at the event saying that together with the county government they had already planted 160,000 trees in the county.

Other County officials who took part in the drive include executive committee members for water and roads, Robert Kisyula and Eng. Sebastian Kyoni respectively and chief officer for natural resources and climate change Mary Mbenge.