By KPC Reporter
When he was a little boy, Evans Moseti’s family fetched water from a stream near their home for domestic use.
Moseti is 58 now but the exact point where the spring existed dried years back.
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“I have to pay a boda-boda operator Sh120 to vend jerricans of water that can push my family for a day,” Moseti says.
In the alternative, his wife and daughters have to trek a long distance to the neighboring village, with buckets on their heads, to get the valuable commodity.
Once at the water spring, her family has to contend with long queues of village women before their turn to fetch the water can happen.
The long queues are experienced mostly during the dry spell of December – March.
Moseti told KPC that one of her daughters once got into a fight with another girl at the spring, sustaining a permanent scar on her cheek.
Most homes in Moseti’s area and the broader upcountry county of Nyamira rely on spring water for drinking and kitchen use.
Unfortunately, owing to various human and natural activities, many springs have either dried up or cannot sustain the pressure of want for the resource.
Annoyed with the ensuing situation in Ikonge, Moseti has embarked on an aggressive planting of Bamboo trees.
“The water shortage in this village has mainly been caused by the very many Eucalyptus species trees that our people have planted on their farms. Bamboo trees will restore the water that we so much need,” said Moseti, optimistically.
Moseti, a fervent radio listener, said that he learnt over the radio, that Eucalyptus are water guzzlers, and he was fully convinced why his village had since become drier.
“I heard about it eight years ago and embraced the alternative (bamboo) according to the teachings I had heard from the radio,” he explained.
His farm neighbours a valley (where a river is said to have previously run through).
As evidenced by decaying tree stumps, Moseti eradicated the Eucalyptus on his farm and replaced them with bamboo.
“It’s now five years since I planted bamboo. Already, the level of dryness in my farm is reducing, crops are doing well, and I believe that the river will return someday,” he said.
Moseti has formed a cooperative composed of 70 villagers who advocates for the eradication of Eucalyptus and planting of Bamboo in Ikonge area.
Apart from fighting climate change, Moseti explained that bamboo can be used to make very many things.
They include furniture, books, toothpicks, and poultry feeding troughs.
Also, bamboo has medicinal value, he said.
“I am encouraging our people to embrace bamboo. Bamboo matures in three years whereas blue gum matures after 10 years. If we remove all the eucalyptus then you will have water in Nyamira,” said Moseti.
Nyamira County currently has a 22.2 percent tree cover against a target of 30 percent.
However, experts and leaders observe that the residents’ love for Eucalyptus will not slay the vagaries of climate change after all.
Blue gum is popular due to its economic value and uses.
“This year alone, some 204,000 more trees have been planted in Nyamira. From the national restoration strategy, Nyamira is supposed to contribute 5.2 million trees per year,” pointed out the Acting Forest Conservation Secretary George Tarus.
However, Mr Tarus noted, with concern that most of the saplings were of the Eucalyptus species, better known as Blue Gum or locally as Emeringamu.
Nyamira is hilly; hence many rivers and streams flow in the valleys.
The ballooning population in Nyamira has led to decreased land sizes due to continued land fragmentation.
As a result, most of the Eucalyptus species have been planted on riparian lands.
For this reason, conservationists assert that the 22.2 percent tree cover in Nyamira is not a move in the right direction, after all.
Emeringamu, experts and leaders say, swallows up to 200 litres of water in a single day, hence the thinning and eventual drying up of rivers, streams, shallow wells and boreholes in the area.
“Blue gum is good on the hill tops but if you plant it next to rivers it sucks up to 200litres of water per day. Our rivers are drying and in future we will have conflicts over water,” said Nyamira County Governor Amos Nyaribo during the commemoration of the World Bamboo Day in Ekerenyo last month.
Also attending the national commemoration of the World Bamboo Day on September 18th were officials from the national government who pointed out the need for civic education for the local people to be lead agents in restoring their water resources.
“We are here to stand with the community. As the national government we are willing to join hands with your county to advance the agenda of restoration through bamboo,” said Tarus.
Member of the County Assembly (MCA) Nyambega Gisesa who represents Rigoma Ward xpressed concern over the difficulty to convince locals to abandon blue gum for Bamboo which they have very little information or just misinformation about.
“Our people need a lot of civic education. Telling them to remove blue gum is a tall order. They ask how to get timber from bamboo. Blue gum sells very well in our Gusii region, and they are not sure of bamboo,” said the MCA.
The Acting KEFRI Director Dr Jane Njuguna reassured the residents that research on bamboo had taken 39 years and they should not be worried as it has a lot of benefits.
“KEFRI is ready to train people on how to grow bamboo and add value to it,” said Dr Njuguna.
Bamboo is an eco-friendly species, observed Nyamira county Environment and Forestry Officer Elizabeth Agwata.
“We are doing a lot as a county to replace Eucalyptus species with bamboo. The challenge comes because most residents of Nyamira believe that bamboo is not economically viable and have a notion that bamboo attracts snakes within the homestead,” said Agwata.
Bamboo has great economic value, and simple pruning goes a long way in preventing inhabitation by snakes, she explained, adding that other biological methods can be used to scare snakes away.
Nyamira County’s Director of Climate Change Daniel Omwansa noted that bamboo stores a lot of carbon, hence playing a significant role in the fight against climate change.
“Research has proved that bamboo is one of the known fastest growing plants compared to others which have been studied. Because of its fast growth, it accumulates a lot of starch, which is carbon.
In climate change carbon has been found to be the major greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. During photosynthesis, it takes a lot of carbon dioxide and stores it within its system,” explained Omwansa.
He said that the most common bamboo species are the yellow and green, with the latter being able to grow to more than 20 meters tall.
The officer added that bamboo shoots can be eaten as vegetables and root network helps with soil conservation.
Dr Njuguna said KEFRI is setting up bamboo tree nurseries in Nyamira.
Governor Nyaribo promised that his administration will provide 1,500 free seedlings of bamboo to kick start the replacement of blue gum on wetlands.
Nyaribo noted that the government may be forced to use force to eradicate blue gum from wetlands if their owners won’t heed to the call.
“Don’t wait for us to start pushing you to remove the eucalyptus. Cut them on your own,” he warned.
