Socio-economic aspects of water management along the coast of Kenya

The coast of Kenya has a narrow coastal plain and stretches from Tanzania in the south to Somalia in the north. A number of important rivers drain through it. Population distribution is quite uneven along this coastal zone having developed in clusters linked to artisanal fishing, trade and port activities. The coast's northern districts of Lamu and Tana River are sparsely populated due to a harsh climate and lack of fresh water. The majority of the population is concentrated in Malindi (formerly part of the big Kilifi district), Kilifi, Mombasa, Kwale and Taita-Taveta districts.The paper discusses the challenges arising from fresh water shortage along the coast of Kenya and presents some proposed policy options that may need to be impemented to minimize the scarcity problems. The Kenyan coast receives fresh water from the rivers Tana, Sabaki, Ramisi and Umba. Other important sources of fresh water are Marere springs, Mzima springs, Tiwi boreholes and the lower slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The coast experiences the problem of rapid population growth which leads to land use changes. Since fresh water is scarce, water-borne diseases are rampant and water has become a marketed good. Because of the critical fresh water shortage in the Kenyan coast, water allocation decisions need to be given considerable attention.     

Participatory appraisal for potential community-based mangrove management in East Africa

Mangroves are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world and the coastal forests of East Africa are no exception to this trend. Although conservation, rehabilitation and sustainable management plans have been developed in various tropical regions, only a few locally based approaches have been launched along the Indian Ocean coast of Africa. In order to identify possible conditions for sustainable management of mangroves based on socio-economic and ecological considerations, we present a participatory approach designed to evaluate the relationships between mangroves and human activities and the use of multi-criterion analysis to identify management solutions. To achieve this goal, all the subjects involved in mangrove management (local communities, institutions and researchers) took an active part in the process. The research was carried out in three communities relying on mangrove swamps: Kisakasaka village on the island of Zanzibar, Mida Creek in Kenya, both relying on mangrove forests known to be endangered by over-exploitation, and Inhaca Island in Mozambique, where mangroves are more pristine. Families were the hub of the research and the importance of each of their economic activities was assessed. We then examined the methods by which mangroves are exploited by the local community and by other stakeholders working in the study areas. Our results show that the mangroves in Inhaca are exploited only for household needs and the pressure on the forests is still ecologically sustainable. In contrast, there is a well-established demand for mangrove products in Kisakasaka and Mida Creek and the mangroves represent an essential source of income for the families, resulting in an ecologically unsustainable rate of exploitation. Therefore, possible alternatives to the current management practices were identified in the two areas by means of a participatory approach. Multi-criterion analysis was then used to compare and discuss the alternatives in terms of social, economic and ecological criteria.