Government▼Watch More money for Nairobi’s polluted reservoir A coalition of local groups in Nairobi, Kenya, launched a bid in March to raise funds to restore the heavily polluted Nairobi Dam. The United Nations’ (UN) Nairobi River Basin Project (NRBP) to clean up this reservoir and the Nairobi River basin has been ongoing since 1999. The coalition hopes to raise $60,000 as a first step toward reducing its dependence on UN support. Commissioned in 1953 as a reservoir for drinking water for the capital city of Nairobi, the dam is now so polluted that its water is unusable and hazardous to human health. UN Environment Program (UNEP) officials say that it is contaminated with industrial waste and waste from the nearby Ki-
© 2004 American Chemical Society
bera, a densely populated informal settlement of shacks and huts. The new fund-raising initiative is the idea of Friends of Nairobi Dam (FND), an organization that includes neighborhood associations, the Nairobi City Council, the Kenyan Ministry of the Environment, and UNEP. External government support can’t last forever, so UNEP officials are helping the groups establish their independence. FND is seeking to leverage funding from the private sector, including the Kenyan water industry, development partners, and UN agencies. Fund-raising is important because additional resources are needed to restore the dam, explains Henry Ndede, UNEP coordinator of NRBP.
“But also, by raising independent money, the [FND] will demonstrate that Nairobi residents can be responsive to, and responsible for, environmental issues that affect them directly,” he explains. The NRPB project, which is now moving into its third phase, encompasses the rivers that run through Nairobi Province and the dam. The rivers join to the east of the city to become the Nairobi River, flowing into the Athi River and on to the Indian Ocean. “One of the concrete results and achievements [of phases one and two] is the increased level of public awareness about the dam,” says Ndede. For more information on the NRBP, go to www.unep.org/ROA/ Nairobi_River/Webpages/index.asp. —MARIA BURKE
JUNE 15, 2004 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ■ 223A
