The government yesterday appealed for funds to help fix environmental problems.
Environment CS Keriako Tobiko said efforts being made have severe cost implications on the national budget. He urged development partners to help.
“Kenya wishes to extend an invitation to our development partners to collaborate with us in implementing and complementing these programmes regionally and internationally,” he said in a speech read by Environment and Forestry PS Ali Noor Ismail.
Tobiko said the government has traditionally upheld the principles of sound environmental governance as a national heritage enshrined in the Constitution.
Like most growing economies, Kenya’s increasing population and socioeconomic demands have overstretched land-based resources.
“The government has, by setting up requisite policies and infrastructure, embraced the blue economy as a new frontier of untapped or underutilised natural resource base and the new opportunities to complement the land-based resources for economic development,” he said.
The government fully appreciates the threats to the full realisation of sustainable development and exploitation of the blue economy.
Tobiko cited illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, maritime security, climate change, bio-fouling and introduction of alien invasive species and land-based sources of pollution as some of the threats.
The government has put in place measures to tackle the threats. The ban on importation, manufacture and use of plastic carrier bags and flat bags is one of them. This has led to a decline in plastic pollution load that ended up in the Indian Ocean and other water sources.
Tobiko said they have decommissioned the Kibarani dumpsite in Mombasa. It was the largest open dumpsite in the region and a major source of pollution.
Mombasa county and the government have partnered on a beautification programme and the establishment of the Kenya Coast Guard Service launched last week. Tobiko said all the efforts need resources.