PROJECT SUMMARY

The integrated Electronic Peace Building project seeks to prevent, manage and resolve violent water conflicts in Kenya's Ewaso Ngiro River basin. This will be realized through water conservation projects: water harvesting and storage in schools, installation of water meters in water schemes for control, bicycling for peace races, capacity building and ICT.

This approach will therefore use an electronic medium to create, discuss and develop peace building strategies in the basin as follows:-

1) Introduction of technology: This will involve water harvesting, installation of water meters in community water schemes, and introduction of computers.

2) Capacity building of peace actors on;
Hierarchy of Needs,
Water as a basic need: (BASIC NEEDS = BASIC RIGHTS},
International Humanitarian Law,
Kenya's relevant peace building and environmental statutes/policies,
Sources of conflicts, tools for conflict analysis, strategies for peace building,
Responding to conflicts, e.g. Legal/diplomatic methods (conciliation, facilitation, negotiation, mediation, reconciliation),
African principles of conflict resolution,
Communication in peace building

Computers will be introduced and connected to the Internet. Within the website:-

a) Success cases and good practices will be posted.

b) Electronic news letter will be posted quarterly. From this another one will be published and distributed to peace actors.

This website, that will also comprise a blog, will connect the actors. This operation will therefore offer a robust, highly scalable, high speed platform to carry out the task of discussing water sharing, harvesting /storage, metering and profiling of achievements of participating schools and water schemes in the context of  water distribution within and between the farmers and the marginalized pastoral communities (e.g the Masai, Turkana, Samburu, Somali etc), water conservation, conflict prevention, management and resolution.

This is a completely new approach to peace building in Kenya's water conflict situation, has high chances of success and is using water harvesting, metering, fair sharing and the Internet as entry points.

A related project, E-Agriculture for Kenya's arid and semi arid (ASAL) schools was entered by this writer in September 2009 to National Peace Corps Association Africa Rural Connect (ARC) programme for online voting competition. The idea garnered 804 votes and 155 positive comments world wide and won USD 3,000. See link: http://arc.peacecorpsconnect.org/view/829/electronic-agriculture-in-keny...

In December 19th, 2009, the project was launched in Gakawa Secondary School, Kenya by ARC Manager, Molly Mattessich. See link: http://www.seanetkenya.org/e-agriculture.html
 It was also reported widely by print and electronic media including an interview by Voice of America. See link: http://arc.peacecorpsconnect.org/node/811

Since then the project has been visited by many including a Harvard University Professor and his students, California High School students and teachers, University of California, San Diego students, New York’s Conservation International, UNDP,, PIPA Slovakia, Tang ( Taiwan ) officials etc.

Seanet has consequently won funding from Slovak Aid to implement the project in 8 Kenya’s High Schools and 3 Primary Schools for a 2 year period, starting from January, 2010. Additionally One Dollar for Life (ODFL), a Silicon Valley High School Students Organization has pledged laptops for up to 100 schools that will implement the project. We have already received 20 of them.

PROJECT CONTEXT

KENYA has just emerged from a national wide conflict situation, cooled down and then gone through a successful constitutional dispensation. This radical transformation from a largely centralized to a more democratic and devolved county governments brings new challenges and opportunities.

 An even larger challenge is posed by the threatening climate change phenomenon that is responsible for wide spread global upheavals. There are daily reports of unequaled calamities in all continents. This is especially true as far as droughts and floods are concerned.

 In many parts of Africa, water is emerging as a major cause of violent conflicts. This is perhaps not only because of the dwindling water reserves but also the way it is shared between and within countries. A case in point is the River Nile and its' riparian stakeholders where some countries are threatening others with war if they do not get what they feel is their fair share. This can be exemplified by the Ethiopian Gibe 3 Dam: sowing hunger and conflict. The Omo River valley in Kenya is a home to a UNESCO world heritage site, and also home to about 200,000 agro-pastoralists. Already there is a diplomatic raw between Kenya and Ethiopia on this dam issue. See link: http://www.internationalrivers.org/africa/ethiopia/another-african-lake-...

 The above two elicit a lot of publicity because they are inter-country, but there are other numerous but unreported conflicts within African countries them selves.

 In the Ewaso Ng’iro River basin, rivalry and conflicts for water are widespread. As droughts get longer and rivers dry up, the parties of conflict continue to harden there positions on the matter and more violent conflicts are imminent in the near future.

The E-Peace building project will be implemented within the basin that comprises of:

a)      The western leeward slopes of Mt. Kenya and inhabited by farmers in the Nyeri and Meru districts.

b)      The north of Aberdare Ranges, the slopes of which are also inhabited by farming communities.

c)      The northern arid and semi-arid plains comprising of Laikipia, Samburu, Isiolo, Wajir and Garissa.

 The river has its' sources in the Aberdares Ranges and Mt. Kenya. There are more than 15 tributaries that feed into it as it flows north towards and into the Lorian Swamp. The water then goes underground and re-emerges in Somalia as springs.

 THE UPPER ZONE COMMUNITIES:

 These comprise the Kikuyu and the Meru farmers. The area is semi-arid and a good crop harvest is only possible once in every five years. People therefore turn to the wasteful flood and sprinkler irrigation methods to raise their crops. In this zone about 250 masonry intakes have been constructed to abstract water from the Ewaso Ngiro River tributaries. Together with diesel/petrol powered pumps, the two have “conspired” to ensure that the river water flow is only intermittent. Within the schemes, it is also ironic that the powerful get most of the water while the poor and widows get little or none.

 THE LOWER ZONE COMMUNITIES:

 These comprise the traditional and pastoralist Maasai, the Pokot, Samburu, Somali and other small, marginalized communities. These people depend wholly on their animals and a threat to their livestock is a threat to their lives. Whenever there is drought and the rivers dry up, many of their livestock and wildlife die because of lack of water and pasture. What immediately follows is heightened animosity within them and then between them and their farming neighbors. To restock, cattle raids are organized with devastating results.

As the pastoralists then move their animals upstream to the fragile Mt. Kenya and Aberdares ecosystems, there is more conflicts on the way as they now destroy the farmers' water intakes and also dismantle pipes and pumps that they come across. It is only the police presence that curtails widespread violence.

 In the meantime and back home in the manyattas and tents, the hungry and thirsty aged, the women and the children remain. Here they depend on relief food from the government and other well wishers. With dry river beds, they either scour for water or obtain some from distant boreholes or even wait for relief water that is sometimes supplied by the government. It is at this period that many succumb to water borne diseasesand other ailments. For the men they are better of as they still manage to sell some of their emaciated animals in the places of their sojourn and therefore are able to buy some food.

 To complicate the matters even further, there exist large acreages of ranch lands owned by white settlers of European descent. The pastoralists invaded these farms in September 2004 at the height of a drought that had almost decimated their livestock and wildlife. Seanet International played a major role in conciliation, negotiation and mediation workshops that involved the ranchers, councilors, chiefs, police and the religious leaders. The agreements that ensued were celebrated and there has not been pastoral/ranchers conflicts ever since.

 Recently the Kenyan government has enacted some statutes/policies that are favorable to better water management and prevention of conflicts. Unfortunately the difficult part is in the execution of the policies while the ignorance in the community to these good laws is alarming. Some of these comprise the following:-

 a)      The National Draft Policy on peace building and conflict management (2009).

b)      National Policy on small arms and light weapons (2009).

c)      The water Act (2002).

d)      The Environmental management and coordination act (1999).

e)      The Forest Act/Policy (2005).

 It is only when these laws and their implications are understood by the stakeholders that the prevention and solving of conflicts will be underway.

It is within this context that we will implement this integrated project that is likely to start a chain reaction of activities that will ensure that Ewaso Ngiro and other African rivers will flow for ever.

 PROBLEM HIGHLIGHTS:

 Five Nile basin states have signed a pact that Cairo and the Egyptians in general call a death sentence to a nation that has long been described as the 'gift of the Nile'; The Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram reported on Thursday May 21st, 2010.See link: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/05/21/109210.html

Since water conflicts have multiple causes and effects, a different multi faceted soft power approach is necessary to address the causes.

It is with this in mind that we propose a different and non-traditional ICT-centered and synergistic type of methodology which, if successful, will be scaled up easily, quickly and widely, to all similar parts of Kenya and Africa.

 PROJECT ACTIVITIES:

 These would be as follows:-

 a)      Water harvesting in 3 schools.

b)      Installation of water meters in 1 water scheme.

c)      Installation of 18 computers in 3 schools and 1 water project.

d)      Establishment and development of a versatile website.

e)      Holding of 4 capacity building workshops.

 ANTICIPATED RESULTS:

 Tangible results:-

a)      Fascia boards, gutters and 10,000 liter storage reservoirs in each of the 3 schools built.

b)      426 water meters in 1 water schemes installed.

c)      18 computers in 3 schools and 1 water project.

d)      A website.

e)      4 workshops.

 Intangible Results

 a)      These projects will be the entry points for the E-Peace Building project.

b)      There will be an improvement of water flow in the tributaries of Ewaso Ngiro River.

c)      There will be fewer conflicts within and between farmers and pastoralists.

d)      A conservation/peace culture will develop within the young and the old.

e)      There will be more water for the stake holders to drink.

f)        Computer literacy will increase.

g)      There will be peace and understanding between peoples of many cultures.

 TARGET GROUPS:

Students, teachers and women in farming and pastoralist areas will be the main beneficiary and will be involved in E- Peace Building, learning, efficient water use, shared discussions and cultural exchange, joint workshops etc.

 PPROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN:

 We intend to use the E-peace building methodology to address the main causes of conflicts in the basin. The website will be the medium through which information will be managed. Each participating school and water scheme will open an account. A quarterly E-newsletter would be uploaded and another would be printed and distributed to the actors. Student from the various backgrounds would be able to hold discussions in a blog managed by partners of the project.

 If this project succeeds in the first year, it is envisaged that it will be self propagating in a chain reaction process and then grow exponentially. Perhaps it would even spread fast to the Nile River riparian countries.

 A)    Situation Analysis

 We shall start by doing strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) and actors’ knowledge and information systems (AKIS) analyses in the basin. The AKIS tool will help us to establish whether there exist linkages between the parties of conflict and other actors in the context of the water/pasture resource fair sharing, conservation and conflicts.

 B)    Workshops

 Some of the topics to be covered in the workshops are as follows:-

 a)      Understanding communication as a key to understanding peace building.

b)      Understanding conflicts.

c)      Sources of conflicts e.g. values, resources and needs.

d)      Tools for conflict analysis.

e)      Strategies for peace and transformation.

f)        Responding to conflicts:-

1)      Legal methods.

2)      Diplomatic methods e.g. conciliation, facilitation, negotiation, mediation, reconciliation.

3)      Techniques of conflict management.

4)      International humanitarian law.

 Activity Timeline:

This project will be implemented in one year.

 PROJECT BUDGET FOR 1 YEAR.

This is based on the activities above. It will be USD 59,900.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

 There will be participatory monitoring and evaluation. This will be done by the relevant actors, Seanet and beneficiary representatives.

a)      Percentage achievements will be shown.

b)      Presentation will be to staff, beneficiary, school boards and other relevant actors.

 Operation indicators; this will include:-

a)      Installation of fascia boards, gutters and water reservoirs in 3 schools.

b)      Installation of 426 meters in the water scheme.

c)      Installation of 7 computers.

d)      Development of a website.

e)      Holding of 4 workshops where each will be evaluated by the participants.

 Performance indicators:

 These will be used to analyze efficiency and effectiveness of the project. Overall, all the above will be used for learning and the lessons learnt will be used to give recommendations.

 Reports:

 All the necessary reports, financial, progress and evaluation reports will be made and availed to donor partners and also published in the newsletters. Monitoring reports will show achievement of the results while financial reports will show income, expenditure and balance per line item. Exchange rates will always be indicated.

Project Details

Project url: 

http://netsquared.org/projects/violent-water-conflicts-kenya-s-ewaso-ngiro-river...

Project image: 

Supporting organization: 

Sustainable Environment and Agriculture Network International

Project Social Media Links: 

E-agriculture Social Network

Locations