Nairobi was founded in 1899 as a railway depot by the colonial
authorities. This was two years after the colonist established Machakos as the
administrative centre for the Kenya Colony.
At the turn of the 19th century Nairobi – Maasai word
for cool water– was lush and green with wetlands bisected by clear rivers. A
significant part of the upper Athi River basin drains through the city of
Nairobi and its suburbs. The colonists chose to set up the Uganda railway beachhead
in Nairobi precisely because it had plentiful supply of freshwater and a benign
climate.
Complete or reliable records of Nairobi’s environmental history
are scant. But early accounts describe Nairobi as a marshland devoid of humans
and dense with animals of all kinds. Today lush swamps have disappeared and
thriving wildlife is gone. In their place buildings and roads have emerged. The
clear rivers are no more. What we have now are open sewer canals, teeming with
bacteria, loaded with heavy metals and chocked with plastics.
The once luxurious riverine zones are now dense with squalid
settlements. Nearly all of Nairobi’s slums are on what should be protected
riparian buffers. It is estimated that about 56 percent of Nairobi’s residents
live on the edge of Nairobi River or its tributaries. Some of the slum
residents rely on Nairobi’s rivers – filthy fluid colonies of bacteria and
poison warehouses – for domestic water. High concentrations of heavy metals
have been detected in riverine vegetation and river sediments.
Pollution of urban rivers is not peculiar to Nairobi’s rivers. In
the mid 1800s, London’s sewers were emptied, unfiltered into the River Thames.
By 1957, the pollution levels on London’s River Thames were so bad the river
was declared biologically dead. Nearly sixty years later, the Thames is alive
again: teeming with hundreds of species of fish, waterfowl and more than 400
species of invertebrates.
Past efforts to restore and rehabilitate Nairobi’s rivers have achieved
little. This includes Nairobi Rivers Basin Rehabilitation and Restoration
Program, which was implemented between 2003 and 2009. In 2015, the Cabinet
Secretary of Water and Irrigation Eugene Wamalwa announced a master plan for rehabilitation and restoration
of Nairobi River Basin.
What is needed is a partnership that
brings together government, private sector, civil society and especially, the
residents. I believe we can roll out the largest civil works project, signing
up tens of thousands of youth to remove the solid wastes,
de-silt the rivers stabilize the banks. This effort must include restoration of
riparian buffers, urban storm water management, construction of large wetlands
to cleanup storm waters, regulate discharge and conserve vital limnological
functions.
Restoration of Nairobi’s riverine glory
we will create tens of thousands of new environmental and engineering jobs for
the youth. More jobs will be created when
we re-claim riparian buffers, construct wetlands and build thousands of new
safe and affordable homes for the urban poor.
We win when Nairobi’s riverine glory is restored and picturesque
waterfronts emerge as places for recreation for all cityzens of Nairobi.
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