Maragua residents plant trees around crucial dams, ask investors to establish hotels in area

Lucy Kibandi, a village elder in Karung'ang'i, Maragua, planting a Java plum tree on the banks of Mukaba dam that supplies the village with irrigation water./ALICE WAITHERA

For decades, villages around Kenol Town in Maragua subcounty, Murang’a county, have been depending on dams to feed the fast-growing population.

White settlers built the dams during the colonial era to irrigate coffee and flower farms.

The sporadically located dams have become a lifeline for the residents who have turned their farms into the area’s food basket.

James Maina, a resident of Karung’ang’i and chairperson of the Karung’ang’i Men’s Welfare group, which started in 2012 to conserve the environment, said the dams span over 40 acres and enable them to farm all year round.

 “We came together to address the many challenges our area was facing, such as the wanton deforestation that had left the area bare,” he said.

The deforestation saw farms exposed to high temperatures that raised evaporation, forcing them to enhance irrigation, diminishing water levels in the dams fast.

The group resorted to planting trees in churches and schools to cool the temperatures and conserve the environment.

Residents of Karung'ang'i area and members of Women in Climate Change Organisation (WICCO) plant trees around Mukaba dam in Maragua./ALICE WAITHERA

On Saturday, the group invited residents and members of the Women In Climate Change Organisation (Wicco) to plant tree seedlings around Mukaba Dam, one of the biggest reservoirs in the area.

“You can see the farms surrounding this dam are all very busy. They feed Kenol town and drive its vibrant hospitality industry, and the surplus is supplied to other markets such as Githurai,” Maina said.

She underscored the need to protect the dams, saying the existence of the local communities is entirely dependent on them and would be in jeopardy if they dried up.

Five dams line up from St Michael’s along the Kenol-Sagana-Marua dual carriageway and drain excess water into each other.

Maina, however, urged the government to consider desilting the dams to raise their storage capacity and support locals’ efforts to plant trees around them.

The dams, he said, have the capacity to support commercial leisure activities and hotels if well taken care of, which he said would further boost the local economy and boost the market for their farm produce.

Diana Muthoni, the chairperson of Women in Climate Change Organisation (WICCO), planting a tree on the banks of Mukaba dam./ALICE WAITHERA

“This area’s terrain is very good because it’s not hilly. We have seen an entire economy sprout from Ruiru dam and we know we can achieve even better because we have many dams. Our youths would get jobs and our produce would get a ready market,” Maina said.

Residents have been trained to manage their farms agro-ecologically, reducing pollution in their soils and water while producing organic foods.

“This area has the capacity to grow into a huge economy, since we neighbour Kenol town. Our call is to the county government to make it possible for investors to pitch camp here and encourage domestic tourism,” he said.

Lucy Kibandi, a village elder who said protecting the banks of Mukaba dam will ensure it serves residents better.

Kibandi urged the government to help them with water cleaning facilities to make water from the dam consumable.

Diana Muthoni, the chairperson of WICCO, said more than 500 trees that included guava, loquats, java plum, moringa and bamboo were planted along the dam. Hundreds of others were issued to residents to plant in their farms.

Kamung'ang'i residents during a tree planting exercise along Mukaba dam, a communal dam that support irrigation in the area./ALICE WAITHERA

In two years, residents will benefit from the fruit trees while the aesthetic appearance of the dam will be greatly improved.

“We are challenging the residents to ensure the trees are attended to. Moringa is a medicinal tree that the community can use for better health, bamboo will hold together soils along the banks and is beautiful to look at when it’s grown.”

Bamboo trees are famed for their ability to block up to 97 per cent sun radiation from getting to the earth surface, cooling the surrounding environment by up to eight degrees.

Muthoni urged investors to establish hotels around the dams, saying the expansive agricultural activities in the area would ease their operations.

Josephine Muringo, the subcounty forests conservator, said more than one million trees have been planted in the semi-arid region from July this year, mostly in schools.

The department guides locals on the ideal trees to plant in their areas to boost their survival.

Muringo urged residents living around the dams to stop grazing their livestock on the banks to give the trees a chance to grow.