MWINGI DEAP 2009-2013 REPUBLIC OF KENYA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND MINERAL RESOURCES MWINGI DISTRICT i ENVIRONMENT ACTION PLAN 2009-2013 MWINGI DEAP 2009-2013 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Economic growth and environment are closely intertwined in Kenya. Environmental Action Plan- ning is a tool that aims at enhancing the integration of environment into development planning. Mwingi District is not an exception and has to contend with these challenges with some being unique to the District. Challenges experienced in the District include poverty that has lead to the over-use and destruction of environment. Continued reliance on trees for fuel and wetlands for farming and its resources has lead to deforestation and wetland encroachment. Annual flooding con- tinues to destroy lives, property and frustrate farming activities. The DEAP highlights priority themes and activities for the District towards achieving sustainable development. The report is divided into section one and has eight chapters. Section one gives the challenges of sustainable development and also describes the rationale for and preparatory process of the DEAP. Chapter one gives the introduction and presents the district’s main profile covering the physical fea- tures, demographic, agro-ecological zones, and main environmental issues. Chapter two describes the District’s Environment and Natural resources of Land, Water, Biodiver- sity (forest, wildlife, and Dry lands biodiversity), wetlands and agriculture, livestock and fisheries. For each resource, major environmental issues, challenges and proposed interventions are identified. Chapter four detail human settlements and infrastructures in Mwingi District covering situation analysis, challenges and proposed interventions. Environmental challenges addressed include; waste management, sanitation, pollution, diseases, land use, demand for water, energy, materials for con- struction, land policy and legislation, biodiversity loss and land tenure. Chapter four addresses environmental aspects in trade, industry and services sectors. The key issues under this chapter are high pollution levels from industrial activities and weak enforcement of rele- vant legislations. Chapter five discusses environmental hazards and disasters. The major hazards covered include; drought and famine (famine seasons have local names for instance in 1985 it was called “Nikwa i MWINGI DEAP 2009-2013 ngwete” to mean you have money but unable to buy food because the commodity is not in the mar- ket. Environmental information, networking and technology are discussed in chapter six. It emerges that environmental information and networking technology have continued to receive scanty attention. In order to achieve sustainable environmental management, it is necessary to focus on raising awareness and enhancing public participation at all levels. Governance, Policy and Legal Framework as well as Institutional arrangements are discussed in chapter Seven. The key issues addressed include; harmonization of environmental legislations and institutional mandates, incorporation of indigenous knowledge in environmental management. Chapter eight is the implementation Matrix. ii MWINGI DEAP 2009-2013 FOREWORD The 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro came up with various recommendations, among them Agenda 21, a Global Environmental Action Plan. The theme of the Summit focused on how nations could attain sustainable development. The Government of Kenya embraced this idea by de- veloping the first National Environment Action Plan (NEAP) in 1994. Since independence, Kenya has continued to demonstrate her commitment to environmental man- agement through various initiatives, among them the National Development Plans of 1974 and the National Environment Action Plan of 1994. Further, there have been a number of sect oral policies on environment in fields such as Agriculture, Livestock, Water, Energy, Food, Land, Wildlife, For- est, Industry, Trade, Arid Lands, Disaster Management and the Draft Sessional Paper No. 6 of 1999 on Environment and Development. The Environmental Management and Coordination Act (EMCA, 1999) provides for the integration of environmental concerns in national policies, plans, programmes and projects. In this regard, EMCA 1999 provides for the formulation of National, Provincial and District Environment Action Plans every five years. Environmental Action Planning is a tool that aims at integrating environ- mental concerns into development planning. This EAP process was participatory, involving various stakeholders from institutions and sectors, including the public, private, NGOs and local communi- ties at District, Provincial and National levels. These consultative meetings provided the basis for formulation of the PEAP and finally the National Environment Action Plan Framework. The DEAP report addresses environmental issues from various sectors in an integrated manner and their significance in development planning. It proposes a strategy for achieving sustainable devel- opment in line with Kenya’s quest to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Vision 2030 and Medium Term Plan (MTP). The report has brought out a number of proposed interven- tions, legal and institutional framework to be incorporated into sectoral development plans and pro- grammes. Its implementation will be monitored through the Annual State of the Environment Re- porting. I wish to underscore that the 2009-2013 DEAP report is a broad-based strategy that will enable the district attain sustainable development as envisaged in Vision 2030. Dr. Ayub Macharia (PhD), DIRECTOR GENERAL (Ag), NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY iii MWINGI DEAP 2009-2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I acknowledge with great appreciation the completion of the first Mwingi District Action Plan report for 2009-2013. The report, which identified and documented environmental challenges in the Dis- trict, is a milestone in sustainable socio-economic development for our District. This is in fulfillment of requirements under Environmental Management and Coordination Act of 1999. I take this opportunity to thank all who contributed towards the successful preparation of this im- portant document. The report will act as a reference material and source of inspiration for all Ke- nyans of good will for environmental conservation. It will form a basis for any environmental inter- ventions in the District in the future. All the persons who took part in its production should feel ap- preciated. First, I wish to thank all members of the District Environment Action Plan Committee who tireless- ly collected information and prepared write-ups, which formed part of the report. Their commit- ment to this process succeeded in producing this document. I wish also to thank the District Envi- ronment Officer (Mrs Patricia Mumbi) who was given the task of coordinating the exercise by col- lecting the write-ups, compiling the document and presenting it to the committee and to the Nation- al Environment Action Plan Committee. She kept the committee informed of the progress and re- quired support to unable compilation of the report. The support from Director General of NEMA cannot be under estimated through provision of re- sources for enabling the exercise completed smoothly. Although the funds were not adequate, the little fund that was availed enabled the preparation of the report. The Director, department of re- search and planning of NEMA is recognize for giving the necessary technical information, which the committee needed for the execution of their work through training and provision of written ma- terial for the purpose. A word of gratitude is also passed on to the Director of Environment Eastern Province for conti- nuous technical support given to entire DEAP committee which, enabled timely completion of the District Environment Action Plan whose contents formed part of the Provincial Environment Ac- tion Plan Eastern. The NEMA board of management should be appreciated for allocating and voting for funds for the preparation of the Action Plan for Mwingi District Action Plan among others iv MWINGI DEAP 2009-2013 Dr. Kennedy I. Ondimu DIRECTOR, ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING & RESEARCH CO-ORDINATION v MWINGI DEAP 2009-2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................................... i FOREWORD...........................................................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT....................................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................................ vi LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................................................................... ix ACRONYMS............................................................................................................................................................ x CHAPTER ONE........................................................................................................................................................1 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Preamble .............................................................................................................................................1