24.04.2024
African Rivers a nonprofit international river and water conservation organization is empathetic to the livelihoods of the victims of Nairobi floods and wishes to appeal to the international community and local private sector including other nongovernmental organizations to urgently come to their aid, said Dr. Kamayoyo Kelvin, Technical Advisor for African Rivers based in Lusaka, Zambia.
The recent heavy rains being experienced in Nairobi have caused rivers to overflow thereby leading to unprecedented floods around the city (Nairobi) in Kenya. Climate change is real and is here to stay with us, and its mutation keeps manifesting unforseen occurrences characterised by floods and prolonged droughts, inter alia. We therefore appeal to the international community or cooperating partners around the globe and the Kenyan private sector to urgently come together and mobilise resources towards the flood victims because the occurrence is exogenous.
Unfortunately when floods occur they often yield undetermined consequences which awfully cause damage to property, loss of human life, internal displacement, social conflicts, waterborne diseases, and disrupts business and supply chains especially in the affected areas and nearby towns. African Rivers, therefore, is concerned with the extent of material injury the floods inflict on the economy and social aspects of human development including the quality of water supplied during floods and after the occurrence.
It is for this compelling reason that, African Rivers will soon open a country office in Nairobi to assist the country on building water defense infrastructure and prevent floods that continue to ravage the businesses and livelihoods of the people. The country office to be based in Nairobi will enable us build stronger alliances with like-minded partners, rollout local communities education and climate science literacy programmes, and support implementation of national programmes concerned with health of rivers, technology and alternative livelihoods for the vulnerable communities.
Notwithstanding, heavy rains should be considered as a blessing and not a misfortune as is the case which is induced by poor or inadequate water infrastructure in many countries across the continent of Africa. Our role is to work closely with the governments of the respective African countries in order to vigorously promote investment in the water sector and effectively sensitise the general public about responsible use of water amidst climate change events and other environmental threats caused by undesirable human or industrial activities.
As part of our continental water strategy going into Nairobi, Kenya we intend to focus more on promoting water harvesting techniques and development of modern canals in order to improve water security in the country. Our aim is to pilot this project in Kenya before rolling it to other African countries so as to contribute to strengthening the continent’s water security capabilities and prevent water scarcity.
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