• Some communities have started invading forests to fell trees, burn charcoal.
• Farmers fell trees to expand cultivation area.
Image: FILE:
Environmentalists around Lake Naivasha and the Aberdare Forest have warned reintroduction of the shamba system will erode gains in conserving water towers.
Urging the state to shelve the plans, they said the system was a threat to the current forest cover, which they said was yet to hit the planned 10 perc ent.
It emerged that water levels in rivers flowing from various water towers have dropped sharply due to drought.
Last week, DP Rigathi Gachagua promised the Kenya Kwanza government would introduce the shamba system as one way of increasing food production.
Chairman of the Lake Naivasha Water Resource Users Association Enock Kiminta said he system has been abused in the past.
Speaking in Naivasha on Tuesday, he said the new proposal "spelt doom" for Lake Naivasha, which was the mainstay of hundreds of families.
“We are totally opposed to this proposal as it will increase cases of siltation while chemicals used in the farms will be washed into the lake,” he said.
He said water levels in the lake and rivers had dropped sharply due to the drought and the situation was likely to get worse as harsh weather and little rain continue.
Kiminta called on the government to rethink the proposal, saying many indigenous trees cut in the past and under the shamba system had not been replaced.
“Some farmers involved in the shamba system had good intentions but the majority abused it by cutting indigenous trees and burning charcoal,” he said.
Chairman of the Lake Naivasha Basin Landscape Association Paul Ruoya who called on the state to first engage experts before approving the proposal.
He said that years after the Kibaki government banned the unpopular farming system, damages made on forests by some of the farmers were still being felt.
“The current drop in water levels in rivers around the Aberdares and Lake Naivasha is due to the damage caused by the shamba system over 15 years ago,” he said.
Ruoya defended some of the farmers involved in the shamba system in Nyandarua, saying the majority were keen to grow trees, while at the same time farming.
“There is another group that won’t take care of the trees as they want to stay longer on the forest land while others will be targeting trees for logging and charcoal burning,” he said.
(Edited by V. Graham)