If you harvest these vegetables right now, you go and cook them, you are eating that filth. You see, if you use it to water your vegetables in your garden, even you are eating that filth. "The problem with this river is, it is filthy. People are very aware of water safety and are wary of using river water. Children playing and swimming in it get ill and crops wither and die.
Livestock often refuse to drink the river water. The poor state of the rivers and their surrounding environment leads to health challenges for both people and animals. Climate change has reduced rainfall and created unpredictability, forcing livestock herders to depend on the polluted rivers-which are sometimes just trickles. People use the river water for farming, laundry, bathing and other purposes, out of necessity or convenience. The pollution makes the rivers almost unusable and hazardous. And if the environment holds no meaning, people don't see the consequences of throwing trash into the river. Few people retain knowledge about plants. Interviewees discussed how the proliferation of Christianity had a disconnecting effect, and traditional knowledge was forgotten. Untreated sewage is pumped into or flows into the rivers daily, primarily from low-cost and poorly constructed apartment buildings belonging to wealthy business people.Īnother cause of degradation is people's disconnection from the environment. The main problem of the rivers today, cited by everyone I spoke to, was that of sewage. This rapid development has happened without services keeping pace, including mains sewerage, solid waste disposal, piped safe water, or any sewage treatment plant. It is now a densely populated urban area, no longer peripheral to but a part of the Nairobi metropolitan area. Ongata Rongai was, until fairly recently, a savannah with few or no permanent structures. I carried out my study using archival materials, interviews and focus group discussions. The municipality has a responsibility to act on what's known about the health of its land, people and animals.
It can be seen as a microcosm of a wider issue: that of rapid urban development at the expense of the environment.Įnvironments like this are common wherever urban populations are growing faster than resources and plans can keep up. What I found was a severely degraded riparian environment and frustrated residents. I carried out a study which examined how Rongai's growth has affected the riparian (river) environment and surrounding communities. Indigenous plants growing on the riverbanks were harvested to make medicines. They were also the place where neighboring clans would meet or where the Agikuyu community would come to pray at the towering mugumo (fig) trees. Pastoralists water their livestock here and graze animals along the riverbanks. Children and adults swim and bathe in them. People fish in them, use them to wash their clothes and collect water from them to use at home. These rivers are important historically and, to an extent, today. There are two main rivers flowing through Ongata Rongai: the Mbagathi River and the Kandisi-Kiserian River. The rapid increase in population, and accompanying development of residential buildings, has led to huge pressure on the environment, including its waterways.
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