The scarcity of water in arid and semi arid areas leads to intense political pressures often referred to as "water stress". Furthermore, water not only ignores political boundaries, it evades institutional classifications and eludes legal generalizations. Five million people die each year from water related diseases or inadequate sanitation.
An increasingly prevalent viewpoint about water and security is best summed up by Ismail Serageldin, quoted in the New York Times,"The wars of the next century will be about water." Looking at the Kenyan situation this view has somehow come to be true where communities fight over water points for their cattle and recently in the Kibera slums the residents engaged the city council and the police in fierce fights leading to injuries when their water supply was being disconnected over illegal connections.
Currently major strides are being made globally to resolve the water crisis.
In Kenya the water sector has undergone major positive changes through the introduction of the Water regulatory board. Communities have also been encouraged to embrace water related projects such as digging boreholes and preservation of the natural ecosystem such as forests and vegetation to prevent desertification.
« return.