Efforts to protect Ondiri swamp have gained momentum as the world marks International Wetlands Day.
Authorities say the swamp is unique and there is need to protect it for prosperity.
National Environment Management Authority director general Mamo Mamo said plans to gazette the swamp to give it formal protection status are at an advanced stage.
“We have prepared a gazette notice for [Environment] CS (Keriako Tobiko). But before that, we will undertake intensive public consultation to agree on the issue of gazettement of Ondiri swamp with the stakeholders,” Mamo said.
He added that the Ondiri Management Plan 2022-27 will be subjected to stakeholder validation before gazettement.
Mamo said a survey for the wetland has been done but the authority is waiting for Water Resource Authority to draw the exact boundaries of the wetland.
The director general revealed that this year’s World Wetlands Day is set to be held at Alliance High School, just a stone's throw away from the swamp.
The day will be commemorated with the theme ‘Wetlands action for people and nature.’
Mamo, in an interview on Tuesday, said the swamp is unique as it is the source of the Nairobi River and falls into the Athi Sabaki ecosystem.
“We have around 40 springs that emanate from the swamp,” Mamo said of the wetland that is located in Kiambu county.
The swamp covers 85.3 acres, with a perimeter of 3.5km and a depth range of two to three metres.
The Ondiri swamp remains Kenya’s largest bit bog, what is called a muddy swampy area and the second deepest wetland in Africa after Douala in Cameroon.
The wetland recharges the larger Kikuyu spring and also supports social-economic activities.
Kikuyu Springs is the oldest source of piped water for the city of Nairobi which was connected in 1906.
Mamo said 70 per cent of the people around the wetland use Ondiri swamp to grow food for the Nairobi population.
It is also a unique wildlife habitat.
“It was estimated that we have 76 species of both migratory and residential birds at the swamp and 68 species of plants and potential for ecotourism," Mamo said.
He added that estimates indicate "that close to 800 visitors visit the swamp to watch birds both domestic and international.”
Mamo added that the swamp is also an important carbon reservoir for carbon storage and regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
However, the swamp is undergoing a number of challenges because it lacks formal protection status and unclear boundaries.
The myriad of threats and challenges that have contributed to its continued degradation and over-exploitation include pollution, unregulated water abstraction, encroachment, overgrazing and plantation of eucalyptus on riparian reserves.
Along its edges, there is the continued operation of greenhouses that lack proper waste management practices, a move that has led to the release of chemical effluents in violation of Water Resource Management rules 2016.
The rules prohibit discharge or application of any poisonous, toxic, noxious or obstructing matter, radioactive waste or other pollutants into a water body.
Also, some of the landowners have encroached into the wetland for agricultural expansion, among other competing land-use practices.
Some landowners have planted eucalyptus trees threatening the long term sustainability of the swamp.
Crops found along the riparian have also been causing sedimentation.
Water abstraction has also been a permanent feature in the wetland, with more than 44 water pump stations, a move that has compromised it.
“It is a tragedy of commons because there is free access of the facility and nobody takes responsibility due to lack of legal framework for the management of the swamp,” Mamo said.
A concerted effort by conservationists has, however, reversed some of the challenges.
Water Resource Authority has since erected a fence along 3.7km at a cost of Sh4 million, and 7,000 trees, which are friendly to water sources, were planted.
Following the construction of the fence, some of the illegal activities have diminished.
Indigenous trees have been planted at the wetland as part of the latest efforts meant to ensure Ondiri regains its lost glory.
Further, a lot is planned to improve the experience of those who will visit the swamp.
A botanical nursery is being set up, he said, during the tour of the swamp last week.
A souvenir shop, a toilet and snack shops are also ready.
Mamo said Nema has developed an integrated management plan with key stakeholders to protect the swamp.
“Nema has provided eco-toilets, a number of branded waste pins, and five benches for promotion of ecotourism and we have also done landscaping of nature trails and a number of beehives for the communities as an alternative livelihood options,” he said.
As a build up activity for the commemoration of the day, a number of activities have been arranged that included conservation run (categories of 3km, 5km, 10km), clean ups, and panel discussion.
Trees will also be planted in degraded riparian areas on the eve of the commemoration.