POTENTIAL FOR CONFLICT
Joseph Lejeson, a programme officer at Indigenous Movement for Peace Advancement and Conflict, an advocacy group, told IWPR that the dam would disrupt the lives of traditional herding communities who depend on the river – the Samburu, Rendille, Borana, Turkana and Maasai.
“When the dam is finally constructed and water flow is [diverted], the downstream pastoralists will be forced to move upstream with their livestock in search of water and pasture near Oldonyiro dam, and obviously there would be a fight over these resources,” Lejeson told IWPR.
Others have similar concerns.
Mohammed Dida, who works for Cordaid’s disaster risk reduction programme in Isiolo, predicts that water shortages caused by damming up the river will lead to inter-communal strife.
“We are extremely concerned and alarmed with the construction of the mega-dam and huge irrigation scheme upstream which have added to the already extreme weather and thus affected the normal flow of the river,” Dida told IWPR. “These activities are a potential [source of] conflict among the estimated three million vulnerable pastoralists whose livelihood depends on this river.”
On August 21, four herders were killed on the border between Isiolo and Samburu counties in what the government said was a conflict over pasture-land and water.
Experts like Dida say the water flow from the dam must be properly regulated in order to ensure a steady supply for people living downstream of it.
The dam scheme exemplifies the kind of big infrastructure project that requires a sensitive approach so as to ensure that local communities feel they are being listened to rather than ignored.
Caleb Wanga, who works for the Usalama Reforms Forum, an organisation advocating for security-sector improvements, urged the government to think about groups that stand to lose from this kind of project.
“Communities, if left out in these projects, feel short-changed. Then problems arise,” he said. “People will rise up against the projects.”
Dida agreed, adding, “There is the need for more consultations with the community on mitigating negative impacts to reduce the tension between those who have not been adequately informed, and in order to avoid additional conflict arising from suspicion and speculation.”
The pastoralists are increasingly finding that the open lands their animals once range over are being transformed into intensively irrigated farms.
Sirak Temesgen, a delegate for disaster risk reduction at the Netherlands’ branch of the Red Cross, said communities along the Ewaso Ngiro river basin were already struggling to adapt to these changes, brought on by outside investment.
“There is [an] emerging trend for turning rangeland into other investments by private companies for mineral, oil and [wildlife] conservancies,” Temesgem said. “These diverse interests are threatening the livelihoods of the communities and future of the pastoralists.”
The government has made some effort to address land-use problems through the Water Resources Users Association (WRUA), which brings together some of the communities on the Ewaso Ngiro river.
The WRUA oversees natural resource governance at local level. Its critics, however, say it has yet to bring about real improvements.
“There is an urgent need to build [WRUA’s] capacity to deliver appropriate services,” Temesgen said, adding that pastoralist communities needed to be better informed about current legislation on water and land management.
(Freelance reporter Robert Wanjala wrote this article. It was produced as part of a media development programme implemented by IWPR and Wayamo Communication Foundation)
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