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A. LE FLOCH
Kenya risks violating an international convention if it allows a regional authority and a sugar company to establish a factory in the Tana Delta.
Researcher, Prof Shem Wandiga, said it would be against the Ramsar Convention to allow Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority and Mumias Sugar Company to establish a sugar factory at the delta.
Kenya is a signatory to the convention whose focus is on the protection of fragile ecosystem on wetlands such as the Tana delta.
Wandiga spoke to The Standard on Thursday at Tiwi Beach Resort in Kwale District during a workshop on bridging research, technology and development on sustainable water resource management in Eastern Africa.
The Tana Delta, he added, erodes nutrients from upstream before the waters pour into the sea. He argued that planting sugarcane might trigger an ecological disaster.
He said the project might not endure frequent flooding. He said the Tana delta was listed as one of the wetlands supposed to be protected under the Ramsar Convention.
Wandiga, who is also the director of the Centre for Science and Technology Innovations, said the delta needed to be conserved since it was rich in biodiversity and fragile ecosystem.
"My calculations are that it is better for the Government to protect the delta than to convert it into a sugarcane plantation."
He said the Government should consider the value of rare animals, including primates, mammals and birds as well as the communities living in the delta.
But a leading economist, who preferred not to be named, said the sugar project at the Tana delta could make Kenya a top producer of sugar in Africa.
The economist said sugarcane takes shorter time to mature in the area than in Western and Nyanza provinces.