“The River Belongs to the People”
Sustainable Water Partnership Team Leader Gordon Mumbo brings a lifetime of experience to the Mara River Basin.
Sustainable Water Partnership Team Leader Gordon Mumbo brings a lifetime of experience to the Mara River Basin.
New Beginnings in Transboundary Water Cooperation
Winding for nearly 14,000 kilometers, the Mara River is a vital source of life in Kenya and Tanzania. The river traverses the towering Mau Forest, wanders through tea plantations and growing settlements in the upper Basin, and waters the rangelands of Maasai pastoral communities. The river also sustains the region’s stunning biodiversity, from forest ecosystems to the wildebeests migrating between Serengeti National Park and Maasai Mara National Reserve.
A combination of risk and receptivity fuel a promising SWP activity in Kenya and Tanzania.
“The changes on the African continent are very much alarming—when we talk of sanitation and look at the growth of the populations in Africa, and also the urbanization phenomenon, with the growth of slums,” said Dr.
Team Leader Gordon Mumbo brings a lifetime of experience to the Mara River Basin.
This blog originally appeared on the Sustainable Water Partnership website.
Gordon Mumbo grew up in the small village of Kamuga, in Kenya’s Kisumu County. Year after year, he watched as frequent floods from one of Kenya’s major rivers, the Nyando, disturbed the peaceful flow of village life.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in USAID/Southern Africa (SA) would like to partner with United States and non-United States organizations to achieve common objectives.
On June 14, representatives from USAID projects in East Africa met at the Wilson Center to discuss the Planning for Resilience in East Africa through Policy, Adaptation, Research and Economic Development (PREPARED) project, which worked to strengthen the East African institutions that provide sustainable access to clean water and sanitation services.
This September, the five-and-a-half year Planning for Resilience in East Africa through Policy, Adaptation, Research, and Economic Development (PREPARED) will come to an end.
In the Maasai language, “Mara” means “spotted,” and as you look out over the plains of the Mara River Basin, you can see how the region got its name. The savanna is dotted with plants and animals alike: thorn trees and shrubs, lions, giraffes, migrating wildebeests. One of the most biodiverse regions in the world, the Mara is kept alive by the river flowing through it.
River basins in southern Africa, like river basins around the world, are under threat from increasing water use and shifting rainfall patterns, which are exaggerating flood and drought cycles and degrading water quality. It is hard enough for one country to adapt to these changing conditions, but most of the world’s water basins — 263 lake and river basins, covering almost half of the earth’s nonocean surface — cross national boundaries. To ensure that collaboration rather than competition wins out in basin management, neighboring countries need to work together.