The Ogiek People. http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/ogiek
In any shared basin there are upstream and downstream impacts that can affect users of the shared water resources. These impacts, sometimes called “drivers”, range from policy and economic activity, to pollution and diversion actions. The Mau Forest Complex, the largest montane forest stand in East Africa, is part of the headwaters of the Mara River. In theory the Mau Forest provides a natural way of filtering water and the soils, held in place by the trees, allow for permeation, a gradual process of precipitation contribution to surface waters. The soils also, in the case of a healthy forest, contribute less to erosion material as soil is held in place by vegetation. However, there are news reports and research information that encroachment and illegal timber harvesting have reduced the Mau Forest over the last decades. The indigenous community living in the forest, the Ogiek, report that corruption in the Kenyan government has lead to reduction in the forest. Several years ago Kenyan government’s corruption led to massive tea plantation establishment in the forest, drawing off ground water resources and contaminating the Mara and other water resources that originate in the Mau Forest.
Coordination across the border between Tanzania and Kenya is vital for the sustainable use of water resources in the Mara River Basin, both for humans and the ecosystem. Deforestation contributes to water loss and localized climate change. To date, an MOU has been signed for the Mara, but no official agreements have been finalized between the countries on their shared waterways. Situations like the encroachment of the Mau Forest, at the headwaters of the Mara, can have lasting downstream negative impacts. Erosion will increase with deforestation, and the healthy filtration that the forest provides will no longer function. Keeping forests in place in areas of river headwaters and along river banks is important for the overall health of the river system. The Mara River is no exception. Torrential rains that come in the rainy season can easily strip unprotected top soil away – leaving farmers with land that has less growing potential and value, and downstream communities with more pollutants, more sedimentation, and less clean, safe, water to use.
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