The Mara River passes through one large, connected ecosystem and does not regard the political boundary between Kenya and Tanzania; it starts in the Mau Forest in Kenya, flows through the Maasai Mara and then enters Tanzania, where it feeds the famous Serengeti before flowing into Lake Victoria. The river is vital to millions of people since it provides the water needed for drinking, supports smallholder farming, enables livestock production and underpins the multi-million-dollar safari industries which are based in two well-known national reserves.
The quality and quantity of water that is available hundreds of kilometres downstream are directly determined by activities carried out far upstream, so the river is a common ecological resource which cannot survive if it is managed at the level of individual nations.
At the recent festivities marking the 15th Mara Day in Bomet, conservationists, government ministers and local leaders together issued a plea for a shift from passive dialogue to concerted action across borders. The river is now under increasing pressure due to rapid deforestation, serious land degradation, pollution and climate change, all of which have caused erratic rainfall patterns in East Africa.
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To deal with these threats it is necessary to have a comprehensive strategy which links high-level regional policy with practical enforcement at the local level. Key infrastructure projects, for example the installation of automated hydrometric and gauging stations in cooperation with the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, are intended to monitor water flows in real time so as to enable early flood warnings and assist in the fair distribution of water.
At the same time, the long-term sustainability of the situation depends on guarding the river’s main source: the Mau Forest water tower. It is essential to restore the riparian areas that have been degraded and to introduce climate-resilient farming methods if the sensitive aquatic habitats which support hippos, crocodiles and the other wildlife in the area are to be preserved. The leaders stressed that effective management had to stay firmly based in the local communities.
Organisations such as Water Resource Users Associations and Community Forest Associations enable the local population to have a direct interest in protecting their environment by means of planting trees, carrying out river clean-ups, and using the land in a sustainable way. In the end, protecting the Mara River becomes an urgent economic necessity and requires binding cooperation between Kenya and Tanzania if the ecosystems, the ways of earning a living and the economies of both countries are to be preserved.
