Download Hon. Charity Kaluki Ngilu, Minister for Water and Irrigation

KEY NOTE SPEECH BY HON. CHARITY KALUKI NGILU
EGH, MP
MINISTER FOR WATER AND IRRIGATION
DURING THE AFRICA REGIONAL CONSULTATION WORKSHOP
ON GROUNDWATER GOVERNANCE
HELD ON 29th MAY 2012
KENYA SCHOOL OF MONETARY STUDIES
NAIROBI, KENYA
Shammy Puri, Secretary General of International Association of Hydrogeologists
Representative of UNESCO Secretary General Madame Alice Aureli
Representatives of FAO, World Bank, AMCOW
Distinguished Participants
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is indeed my pleasure to be with you this morning and address you on this important
consultation workshop whose purpose is to raise awareness in preventing and reversing the
global water crisis.
I am informed that this is the second regional workshop in a series of five similar workshops
being held within the UNESCO regions of the world. Kenya is indeed privileged to host this
workshop for the Africa region and I hope that at the end of your three days of discussions that
objectives will have been realized. We will definitely adopt some of the resolutions that will be
arrived at here while some will be domesticated to suit our unique groundwater situation.
Page 1 of 4 This workshop, which brings together policy makers and professionals in the water sector from
across Africa, is being held at an opportune time when impacts of climate change are visibly
evident on surface water resources while the same is not clear on groundwater resources. We
need expert opinion based on scientific evidence in this regard so that mitigation factors are put
in place early.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to briefly enumerate the various challenges we in the region are experiencing in the
water sector, particularly with respect to groundwater. Kenya is still considered as a water-scarce
country with only water per capita of about 647 m3 per year and a resource endowment of 21
billion cubic meters a year based on the 1992 National Water Master Plan. However, the ongoing
studies on the National Water Master Plan 2030 especially with regards to groundwater have
indications that Kenya has up to 60 billion cubic meters of groundwater potential that now
requires compressive investigation to locate and map out these aquifers for exploitation. In the
2009 census, it was noted that 43% of rural and 24% of urban households relied on a spring, well
or borehole as their main source of water. Groundwater’s advantages are numerous – its
occurrence in many places, the speed with which it can be developed, the relatively low capital
cost of development, its drought resilience and its ability to meet water needs on demand – make
it a critical component in rural water supply and for small towns, as well as domestic water,
irrigation, industry and commercial uses. We therefore need to further our knowledge on
groundwater systems.
My Ministry has been involved in studies spearhead by the International Shared Aquifer
Resources Management (ISARM) and International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) to
map out regional groundwater resources, but still the exact groundwater parameters have not yet
been established. You will realize that sharing what you cannot quantify or qualify is a potential
source of conflict. In this regard, I wish to note here that my Ministry is partnering with
UNESCO with financial support from JICA to map groundwater resources in Turkana Country.
Page 2 of 4 This will help in reducing cost of implementing borehole programmes and attracting investment
in the region. We are indeed very grateful to UNESCO for this assistance.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
May I therefore, take this opportunity to extend my gratitude to UNESCO for having approved
the establishment of a Category 2 Regional Centre on Groundwater Education, Training and
Research to be hosted at Kenya Water Institute at its satellite campus in Ciakariga, in a very arid
area with no surface water resources. The centre will play a critical role in disseminating
information, creating awareness and educating people in the region on issues pertaining to
groundwater resources management. It will also implement groundwater programmes in the
IGAD region.
In this regard, the Kenyan Government will give every support within its ability to enable the
centre meet its objective, including posting of competent personnel at all levels to the centre and
providing the require facilities and financial support to the centre.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Ministry, with the assistance of JICA, is reviewing the National Water Master Plan with one
of the objectives being to assess the water availability vis-à-vis the projected water demand to
the year 2030. This is in tandem with the Country’s Vision 2030, which defines the country’s
roadmap to transformation into a rapidly industrializing middle-income country by the year 2030.
The Interim National Water Master Plan has developed and one of the salient issues in the
factoring in the water balance of the country the contribution of groundwater, unlike the National
Water Master Plan of 1992 which almost entirely overlooked groundwater resources contribution.
We therefore expect a revised national water capita. The Plan has also taken into account the
effects of Climate Change on water resources and different scenarios have been projected both in
the short and long term. We expect the final report to be ready by mid next year.
Page 3 of 4 Further on climate change, my Ministry has is under negotiations with the World Bank to secure
funds to the tune of USD 700 million to support climate change mitigation programmes to ensure
a water secure Kenya. Indeed Kenya has been noted to take a lead in climate change response.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I wish to inform you that in October 2010, Water Resources Management Authority in
collaboration with the World Bank held the country’s version of Groundwater Governance
Workshop, whose theme was on “Improving groundwater governance: The political economy of
groundwater policy and institutional reforms”. It was noted that generally groundwater
management is weak and characterized by a lack of strategic focus and limited resources. The
workshop further observed that there is a poor knowledge of groundwater resources, general
weakness in institutional capacity, limited technical capacity and low funding. Therefore, there is
an urgent need for sound management and protection of aquifers not only in Kenya but in the
region in general, since some of these aquifers are shared between two or more countries.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my sincere hope that at the end of this workshop, the African region will have contributed
immensely to the development of a Global Framework of Action that will inform policy makers
and stakeholders on effective governance of groundwater resources.
Finally Ladies and Gentlemen, with these remarks it is my pleasure to declare this workshop
officially open and also wish you fruitful deliberations.
Thank you
Hon. Charity Kaluki Ngilu, EGH, MP
Minister of Water and Irrigation
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