Conservation pays: How protecting rivers has built a rural economy

Farmers living along the upper Tana have improved their livelihoods within the last 10 years by protecting Kenya’s largest river.

This follows the establishment of the Upper Tana–Nairobi Water Fund Trust (UTNWFT) that seeks to safeguard the source of water for Nairobi residents and millions of others living downstream.

The fund, created in 2015 by the Nature Conservancy, continues to transform watershed conservation into a catalyst for the rural economy. Farmers have been trained on how to reduce soil erosion, restore degraded landscapes and secure clean water for Nairobi’s 4.8 million residents.

The enhanced farming practices that include rainwater harvesting through the use of dam liners near the homesteads, terracing, and planting of more fruit trees have increased their earnings without relying on the river for irrigation.

David Nyoro, a 67-year-old farmer from Kimandi village near Ndakaini Dam, who once struggled with poor harvests as erosion stripped his land of nutrients, received 180 avocado seedlings when he partnered with the water fund in 2017. With each tree giving him 70 kilogrammes annually, Nyoro earns nearly Sh2 million, a tidy sum in the largely peasant economy that has enabled him to feed and educate his six children.

“I have lived here all my life, using the water from the nearby river for farming, spraying the crops and destroying the water source. Using the chemicals meant lower profits and a depressed income,” says Nyoro.

“With water available all year round from the water pan near the home, I can concentrate on farming while conserving water for the city,” says Nyoro.

The water fund, structured as a public-private partnership, receives funding to invest in such upstream projects from large corporates such as East African Breweries (EABL) and Coca Cola, who are also some of the largest water users in Kenya.

According to Fred Kihara, the fund’s partnership director, “for every dollar invested upstream, two dollars are generated for businesses downstream”.

Water quality

According to the fund, which is championing long-term management of the water source by applying nature-based solutions, this has contributed towards securing Nairobi’s water supply by reducing sedimentation, improving water quality, stabilising river flows and improving efficiency of water treatment, delivering over 27 million litres of additional dry-season water daily.

“Our biggest lesson from the last ten years has been that it is more cost-effective to address these challenges upstream. We look forward to another celebration in ten years as we continue working with farmers, government and stakeholders to conserve the Upper Tana watershed using nature-based solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change, improve farmers’ livelihoods and secure a consistent supply of clean water for Nairobi,” said Eddy Njoroge, the fund’s trustee president.

So far, more than 470,000 acres of farms and forests and 980 kilometres of rivers are now under improved sustainable management. Over 260,000 farmers have adopted climate-resilient land management practices, including the installation of 17,000 water pans that harvest more than 2 billion litres of rainwater every year.

Over the past decade, the Trust has also supported the planting of 5.9 million trees, including 1.6 million fruit and nut trees, created more than 22,000 green jobs and generated $118 million (Sh15.34 billion) in additional income for farmers through fruit, nut and livestock feed value chains.

Francis Mburu, another farmer in the watershed region, endured decades of unpredictable rains despite living near the Aberdare range, one of Kenya’s water towers.

With support from the fund, he installed a 100,000-litre water pan and terraced his farm 

“I am a fish farmer beside the thriving banana and avocado farming. All these provide my family with a steady income while reducing silt flowing into rivers through terracing,” he says, highlighting how conservation secures both food and water.

Through such sustainable farming practices, Nairobi water is now 41 per cent cleaner due to a reduction in pollutants and sediments, resulting in savings of $1.2 million (Sh156 million) in water-treatment costs.

Field extension assistant Caroline Wangari emphasises that such non-cash interventions to farmers, such as providing water pan liners or seedlings, have accelerated economic benefits, with such techniques being used as standard procedures to conserve riparian reserves because of accrued tangible economic returns.