• Conservationists oppose dam construction across the Mara River in Kenya and Tanzania, say they will have a devastating impact on wildlife, humans.
• Free-flow rivers in Mara basin essential to tourism, agriculture, fishermen, pastoralists and the economies o Kenya, Tanzania.
Image: FILE:
Proposed construction of dams in the Mara Basin will doom the wildebeest migration, endanger wildlife and hurt those who depend on it.
This was a rallying cry on Wednesday last week during this year’s celebrations to mark the spectacle of the annual wildebeest migration.
Conservationists said the river’s resilience in the face of many threats depends on it remaining free flowing and without dams.
For now, the main channel of the Mara River remains unblocked by hydropower dams.
Several are planned within the Mara basin, however, including large multipurpose dams at Norera in Kenya and Borenga in Tanzania.
These were initially joint projects but the two nations are still reviewing the ecological impact of such major river infrastructure.
Tanzania is now calling for the dams to be halted to protect the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem on which so much depends.
The construction would disrupt the natural flow of the Mara River — its life-giving flow of water, sediment and nutrients — beyond the breaking point, conservationists said.
The celebrated mass migrations will fade into memory, as will much of the basin's unique biodiversity.
Life will also become much more difficult for people in the basin that depends a healthy river for livelihood, including Maasai pastoralists, farmers and fishermen.
By keeping the river free flowing, experts argue, the resilient Mara will be able to sustain people and nature despite global warming.
This year’s celebrations to mark the migration spectacle during Mara Day, were held in Tarime, Tanzania. The theme was 'Tuhifadhi Mto Mara Kwa Utalii na Uchumi.'
The basin's health is for the economies of Kenya and Tanzania.
From July to September every year, tourists from across the world throng the Maasai Mara for the wildebeest migration.
Vehicles drive around the Mara River as tourists watch thousands of of wildebeest crossing the roaring river and risking attacks by crocodiles as they sprint into Serengeti National Park for lush pasture.
The Mara River stretches 395km from its source in Kenya’s Rift Valley to where it flows into Lake Victoria in Tanzania.
The Mara River basin hosts the highest density of large herbivores on the planet.
Each year, more than a million wildebeest, half a million gazelle and 200,000 zebras migrate from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Maasai Mara reserve in Kenya for water and grazing. As the only source of water in the dry season, the Mara River makes this exodus possible.
A recent Mara River biodiversity report by the World Wide Fund for Nature in 2020 provided the first in-depth study. It identified 473 native species, including many mammals, 20 amphibians, 40 fishes, 88 water birds and 141 vascular plants.
But the health of the free-flowing Mara also sustains the livelihoods of 1.1 million people. It contributes 10 to 15 percent of the GDPs of both Kenya and Tanzania.
Agriculture nourished by the river is fast increasing.
The river also helps to sustain the continent’s most productive freshwater fisheries in Lake Victoria, which yield about a million tonnes of fish each year.
The risks to the river include increasing droughts caused by climate change, and human activities, including water abstraction for agriculture and tourism.
These pressures have led to erratic flow upsetting the delicate natural balance and degrading vital wetlands.
The basin's human population increases by three per cent each year.
Dr William Ojwang, a freshwater expert and WWF's Kenya Rift lakes programme manager, said it is the people's collective responsibility to safeguard the river now for the future good of communities, economies and biodiversity.
“A free-flowing Mara is our pride, our health and common heritage,” Dr Ojwang said.
About two billion people get their drinking water directly from river systems, which provide water to 62 per cent of the world’s irrigated farmland. The rivers directly support about a quarter of total global food production.
Hydropower generates about 17 per cent of global electricity.
But healthy, free-flowing rivers are more than water pipes. Their dynamic flow of water, sediments and nutrients sustain freshwater fisheries critical to the food security of more than 200 million people.
They fertilise productive flood plains and help provide a buffer to protect cities from floods. They keep heavily populated deltas above the rising seas.
(Edited by V. Graham)