Stakeholders around Lake Naivasha have raised concern over the amount of silt washed into the water body by the ongoing rains.
They say the lake is slowly choking in sand and plastic waste due to the degradation of the riparian land and the cutting down of water papyrus by local communities.
“Since the papyrus were mowed down, all the waste has been washed into the lake, and this will have major effects on the lake,” said Enock Kiminta.
Kiminta is the chair of the National Water Resource Users Association.
The situation has been worsened by the invasion of the riparian land by hundreds of livestock seeking pastures and small-scale farmers.
This comes as water levels drop despite the rains that have been pounding the catchment area and the lakeside town.
Kiminta said the ongoing rains are washing sand and other waste, including plastic bags, into the lake, raising fears of an environmental disaster in the coming months.
Slums next to the lake are the major pollution contributors, he said, with waste from Naivasha town also finding its way into the water body.
“We have seen that the colour of water flowing in our rivers is very brown, and this is an indication that there is heavy silt from the catchment area,” he said.
Kiminta said the situation has been worsened by illegal abstraction of water by farmers on several rivers, leading to a fallout between communities living upstream and downstream.
On his part, David Kilo, the chairman of Lake Naivasha Boat Owners Association, said sand from quarries in South Lake had contributed to the high silt.
He said beaches around South Lake were currently covered by pumice from the quarries, making them inaccessible.
“Whenever it rains, tonnes of sand and quarry chips from nearby quarries easily find their way into the lake, and this is affecting the breeding grounds of fish,” he said.
Kilo added that fish catch had also dropped by over 30 percent due to the receding shores and destruction of vegetation around the troubled water body.
“Fish hatches on the shores of the lake, and with the drop in water levels, we have seen a major decline in fish catch, and this could worsen in the coming days,” he said.
