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"id": 207602,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this very critical Vote. The Ministry of Water and Irrigation, like water itself, is our lifeline. Through the activities of this Ministry, Kenyans have great expectation in their wish and desire to get clean water. I want to congratulate the Minister and his entire staff, because this is a Ministry that in the old days used to be like a Siberia, where the unwanted people were posted. But now it has become the cornerstone of our activities in the operations of the Government and economy of the country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is lamentable that the amount of money that has been allocated to this critical Ministry is hardly sufficient for it to meet the expectations of Kenyans. This is because water is life and everybody everywhere is crying for it. Just like one of my colleagues said yesterday, the nerve centre and lifeline of the Government and people of this country will be security, water, education and health. These are Ministries that really need close attention when the Budget is being formulated. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to talk about three or four things that, I think, in its efforts to improve the services to Kenyans, this Ministry can pay attention to. The first one is the issue of dams. It is known that the construction of dams is quite expensive. Indeed, in the last ten years or perhaps, since Independence, we have not had as many dams constructed in the country as we had during colonial days. This is partly because of emerging environmental issues, lack of adequate land to construct those dams and many other factors. But we also have a lot of dams that were constructed or areas earmarked for construction of dams in the colonial days. I would want to urge the Ministry in its next budget to have a reasonable component of a sum of money that they can use to rehabilitate all the existing dams in this country. In my constituency, I have close to 25 small dams of about three to ten square kilometres that have not been given any attention for the last 40 years. This has resulted to the grabbing of land around the dams and destruction of the catchment areas that feed the dams. Eventually, some of them have been drained away by greedy land speculators. I would want to urge the Ministry to liaise with the Ministry of Local Government, because most of those dams are built on trust land, so that they are protected, rehabilitated and put to good use by wananchi. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the second issue that I want to touch on is about Lake Victoria, the Nile Basin and the whole catchment system of Lake Victoria. I know that you come from Dol Dol, I do not know if you have ever visited Lake Victoria. But if you go to Lake Victoria, you will see that the lake has receded in some areas by up to 60 metres. That is very dangerous for such a shallow lake. Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa, and the second largest in the world. But it is also the shallowest in Africa. It is, at the very most, nine metres deep at the deepest end, compared to Lake Tanganyika which is up to three or four kilometres deep at the deepest end. When such a shallow lake loses 60 metres, that is very dangerous for our eco-system and environment. That is because of the wanton destruction of vegetation and forests in the catchment areas. All the rivers that flow into Lake Victoria from Mt. Elgon, the Mau Escarpment and Cherengany Hills, have diminished by up to 60 and 70 per cent in the last ten years. That is to the extent that the replenishment of water in the lake is entirely dependant on storm water. That is why my friend, Mr. Wanjala, suffers routinely. People in his constituency expect floods and when they come, they come in torrents and with such ferocious flows that they kill people and break dykes. That is because it is not a controlled flow. That can be done in several ways such as rehabilitating the catchment areas, controlling the filtration inflows into the lake, controlling the water flow by damming the rivers and, above all, evolving better ways of managing the catchment areas of Mt. Elgon and other areas that I counted. 3386 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 22, 2007 Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have heard stories about the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and the Nile Treaty that is being re-worked on. I want to urge the Ministry of Water and Irrigation that the execution of the current negotiations of the Nile Treaty should not be, and cannot be an issue between the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and other stakeholders from other countries. It must involve all Kenyans. More than 10 million Kenyans live within the catchment area of the Nile Basin. We are talking about the people living in Kericho, Kisii, the entire Western Province and the entire North Rift. I want to see a situation where, when that Treaty is drafted and accepted by all stakeholders, it should be brought to this House for debate, so that we could look at it critically, enrich it, see whether all the components, interests and requirements that a treaty of that magnitude carries are included, before it is executed. Mr. Speaker, Sir, equally, there was an announcement, with a lot of pomp and funfair, especially in Western Province where they came around saying: \"This is the Nile Basin Initiative. We have money. We are going to rehabilitate River Sio.\" They even came to my constituency and earmarked some places to collect water from some springs and supply it to people. It is now two years and we have not seen it. I want to hear from the Minister whether that was a public relations exercise or it was truly an initiative that was meant to benefit the people that have looked after the inflows of Lake Victoria for all those years. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in that Treaty which we have not seen, we must emphasise that Egypt must play a critical role in the management of the catchment areas of Lake Victoria. The entire flow of the Nile River, that takes 75 per cent of the flow of water into Lake Victoria, comes from our region. Egypt, as the principal beneficiary, should be involved to the extent of managing the water sources, the flows of the river and, above all, managing Lake Victoria so that, as they benefit, they know that, that water comes from somewhere and there are custodians who have looked after that water for all those years. That is the more reason why I said that, that Treaty should not be signed in a boardroom, before it passes through this Parliament, for every hon. Member to look at it and make comments. Mr. Speaker, Sir, many of us are using the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) money to drill boreholes everywhere. There is only one impediment. There is a component called survey fees that we get from the Ministry. It is too expensive. I want to urge the Ministry to give that as a service to wananchi . Mr. Speaker, Sir, if I have set aside some money to drill three or four boreholes, the Ministry should be on hand to assist in free hydrological surveys, identify where the water is and the quality of water possibly available underground, so that we can be able to easily supply water to"
}