LAKE NAIVASHA ECOHYDROLOGY UNDER ANTHROPOGENIC STRESS ‘Past, Current Challenges and Options for the Future’

Since colonial times, Lake Naivasha became Kenya’s economic development hub dominated by Geothermal power production, cattle husbandry, a developing tourism industry. Large scale horticulture developed starting from the md 1980s, providing incentive for the growth of the Hotel and hospitality sector and to small and medium enterprises around the lake, as well as to intensive smallholder cultivations and pastoralism. With advanced technologies and continued rise in human population, these developments have gradually expanded, continually exerting pressure on already scarce natural resources with land and water being the most affected. Conflicts between various interest groups often erupted amid fluctuations in the lake levels. Growers, pastoralists, the fisherfolk community, hoteliers, upper catchment and lower catchment communities often accuse one another of engaging in resource use malpractices. These conflicts opened partnership resource-management opportunities to help implement research-informed mitigation measures like the Integrated Water Resource Allocation Plan that governs water use, Payment of Ecosystem Services (PES), as well as ecohydrological interventions such as the use of constructed wetlands to clean flower farm effluents. Recent large scale development projects by both the National and the Nakuru County Governments brings new uncertainties for the lake's future. Plans to develop an Industrial Park and an inland port for the new Standard Gauge Railway in Naivasha, together with the plan to develop and market Naivasha as an Ecotourism and Conferencing Destination, have influenced speculation on investment opportunities and demographic trends hence attracting investors and jobseekers. This leaves unanswered questions about the vitality of the lake’s ecosystem services that will continue to be degraded. The County Govt. plan is pushing for a green economy agenda while Industries are planning activitires causing potential risks of pollution and related environmental challenges. How can we strike a balance? Several interest groups partnered to create a game/wildlife corridor connecting the lake’s riparian with Eburru Forest in the upper basin, Mt. Longonot & Hell’s Gate N.P. Ecosystems. Lobbying has started for the adoption of clean technologies like use of water recycling and sulphur scrappers in geothermal power generation, together with the establishment of pollution monitoring systems. Finally, the papyrus fringe itself has been the target of research and management proposals.