From neighbourhood to fishing ground

Sharoo

Lister
When a group of urban poor bought a piece of land next to Lake Nakuru National Park, they had one mission: to construct permanent houses.
Nearly 200 members Muungano wa wanavijiji group settled at Barut Ward in Nakuru West and subdivided the land into small plots on which they built permanent houses.
Living a stone’s throw from the popular national park, the group enjoyed a fantastic scenery with a variety of birds and wild animals from the comfort of their homes. Save for the destructive baboons, they have lived there peacefully for many years.
However, their honeymoon came crumbling last month when Lake Nakuru water levels rose and submerged their homes. They were forced to relocate to higher grounds.
And as the displaced land owners ponder their next move, the rising water level is turning out to be a blessing in disguise to some of the residents who have resorted to fishing.
“The fish business is good here,” says a woman as she serves a meal of fish and ugali to a boda boda rider.
“Analysis for selected heavy metals of the two dominant fish species established that heavy metal concentrations in the two fish species were within the recommended Food Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization limit for fish and fish products except total chromium,” said the joint report.
“The detection of heavy metals in the fish even in small concentration may not have immediate health threats on consumers of fish and fish products from Lake Nakuru, but will likely have adverse effects if there is prolonged consumption of the fish species since heavy metals bio-accumulate,” the report added.
The report that was published last month was prepared by experts from the department of Water, Environment, Energy and Natural Resources, Kenya wildlife Services, Flamingo Net and Kenya Marine, Fisheries and Research Institute.
But even before the report was made public, young men and women from Naivasha had already flooded the area with their wooden boats for fishing expeditions.
“On a good day I could trap more than 200 fish which I sell at between Sh50 and Sh200 depending on their sizes,” said Mr James Kamau.
But some of the affected residents who lack clean water and food have not received any humanitarian aid for two months now. The residents fear there could be an outbreak of malaria and waterborne diseases like dysentery and cholera if no action is taken soon.
Ms Jecinta Mwilu from Akiba Mashinani Trust which gave the land owners loans to construct their houses said that the water levels started rising in March and has so far displaced 117 people.
“There is no stopping the rising water levels and experts predict it could stretch to five kilometers into residential areas and we appeal to the county government to assist the displaced families,” said Ms Mwilu.
A resident Mr Stanley Muchangi said that the water has destroyed their crops.
 
i know ignorance is no defense
but Kenyans need to know of Riparian land, forests, river/lake flood basins.....
 
Wakenya ni wale wale,,wanajenga permanent houses in areas prone with floods.Before ununue shamba,junguza kwanza ujue hii shamba iko na disadvantages gani.
 
You mean there's a family which was displaced due to floods but on the other hand somebody is benefiting from it and to make the matter worse he is praying for the water not to subcide.
 
i know ignorance is no defense
but Kenyans need to know of Riparian land, forests, river/lake flood basins.....
in this case hawa wamepatwa offside, bila maps za survey of kenya ni ngumu kujua that this was a flood plain. My dad has lived in Nakuru for 65yrs na anasema its the first time water levels zimefika this high. b4 that ilikuwa shamba za mkoloni na maybe hata hao never experienced this. The last decade has seen levels in all rift valley lakes rise to unprecedented levels, lake Bogoria a hotel was inundated pia
 
Lakini hio story yooote bila picha?
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