BOSTO WATER DAM PROJECT

NON-TECHNICAL EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Background

Kenya‘s economy is largely rural-based and heavily dependent on its natural resource base. Water resources usually play a key role in the economy for all sectors including urban and rural consumption, energy generation, agricultural and livestock development, industry and tourism. Kenya is classified by the U.N. as a chronically water-scarce country. The country‘s natural endowment of freshwater is highly limited, with an annual renewable freshwater supply of about 647 cubic meters per capita, significantly below the 1,000m3 capita set as the marker for water scarcity.Despite this, the UN Sustainable Development Goal Six (SDG-6) aims at ensuring access to safe and affordable water for all by year 2030. This is in line with Article 43 of the National Constitution of Kenya which provides for the access to clean and safe water for all. Similarly, one of the flagship activities for Kenya Vision 2030 is aimed at achieving universal access in water and sanitation services by 2030. All these targets call for equitable sharing of scarce water resources among the 47 counties in the country.

WATER SUPPLY IN BOMET COUNTY

Bomet County, like other counties in Kenya is aiming at improving their water and sanitation sector in line with Kenya Vision 2030 and the UN-SDG-6. The existing water supply schemes which are managed by Bomet Water Company are Itare, Sotik, Bomet, Longisa, Sigor, Olbutyo, Kamureito, Yaganek and Ndanai water supply. The main water sources within the County include Nyongores, Kipsonoi, Itare, Kiptiget, Chemosit Amalo, Mara and Sisei. The mission of the county as outlined in the Bomet County Integrated Development Plan (Bomet CIDP 2013-2017) is to develop, conserve, utilize, protect and sustainably manage water and development of irrigation infrastructure for improved livelihoods for the people of Bomet County. Most of the existing water supplies in Bomet County are pumping-based schemes. The operations and maintenance costs are very high to an extent that the schemes are not self-sustainable. The County Government has to supplement the revenue from the schemes to make water affordable to people.

Previous hydrogeological studies have revealed that the Northern part of the County does not have good ground water potential. Borehole yield for the Northern and Central parts of the County have very low and unreliable yields. At the same time, the ground water resources in the Southern part has high levels of fluoride. Consequently, most of the domestic water sources in Bomet County are springs and shallow well in the Northern part where as the Southern part are mostly served by small pans. One of the problems in the County is that most of the water harvested from roof catchments is largely polluted with dust and smoke especially in areas adjacent to the roads. Consequently, water fetching takes a significant portion of women‘s and girls‘ time in Bomet County because traditionally it is their responsibility to avail water for the family.

The problem is compounded by the hilly terrain that makes it hard to fetch water from valley bottoms where most of water points are located at the Northern part of the County and long distance to water points the Southern part of the County. A few households have adopted water harvesting techniques which serves them during the rainy season. Majority of the residents carry water on their head, and few use of donkeys, bicycles. These means do not assure the quality of water received and used. This demonstrates the need for the proposed project in order to free women to do other challenging and rewarding activities that will improve their livelihoods. The fact that some people draw water from the unprotected springs and open streams is also worrying given that such water is shared with animals and also is highly polluted due to intensive agriculture with increasing population. Bomet County is blessed with many rivers that flow from high elevations to low elevations of the County. There is need to explore means of tapping the water at the high elevations and develop water systems that are gravity flow. Therefore, Bosto Water supply Project seeks to provide gravity flow water scheme that will increase water coverage as well as integrate existing water schemes so as to eliminate pumping components of the schemes to ensure reduced operation and maintenance costs and hence affordable and efficient supply of water.

THE PROPOSED PROJECT

The proposed Bosto Dam Project is located along the Kipsonoi River within the South West Mau Forest Reserve in KONOIN CONSTITUENCY, Bomet County. The project will target to supply water to part of Bomet County, and will serve a population of 603,182 in an estimated area of 1052km² including key urban centres such as Bomet, Sotik, Silibwet and Kapkatet. The supply will also cover the rural areas in Konoin, Bomet Central, Sotik and Chepalungu constituencies. The project is to be designed for a 20 years supply period (as recommended by Manual for Water Supply Systems in Kenya, 2005) with the intial year as 2020 in order to allows for four-year implementation period. The design horizon will be the year 2040 The estimated total water demand for the proposed supply area is 80,238 m3 /day while the design water demand is estimated as 80,238m3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED PROJECT

The proposed dam will be zoned earth fill/rockfill dam of 45m high and 345m long with the crest level at elevation 2340masl. Indicative dam impoundment is 29.5MCM out of which 8,424,900m3 will be utilized for domestic and livestock use. The total flood area will be about 252ha while the catchment area will be 124km2 . The dam will be capable of supplying water to water Treatment Plant (WT) at Bosto Hill (2260m) through gravity. The WTP will treat 80,238m3 per day and is proposed to be located at Bosto Hill. The WTP will include intake works, sedimentation tank, sludge drying bed, chemical mixing and dosing building, pump house and blower room, gas chlorination building, chemical storage building, laboratory, treated water tank, domestic water tank, backwash water lagoon, administration block, workshop, generator house, staff houses, retailing house, gate house and gate house among others. water Tanks water will also be located at WTP site that will command gravity water supply to the supply area of 1050Km2 . The Water Treatment Facilities are expected to treat 56,620m3 /day for future stage with a provision space for expansion to 80,300m3 per day by 2030. The water distribution will consist of pipelines and upto 30 storage tanks of various sizes ranging from 50M3 to 5000M3 . The distribution network will involve upto 350km long transmission lines ranging from 550mm to 150mm pipelines to be installed mostly along the existing road reserves. The only other installations will be access roads to the dam site and also along the water pipeline from the dam to the WTP at Bosto Hill.

PROJECT JUSTIFICATION

The proposed Bosto water supply Project is conceived to serve Bomet County and parts of Kericho County (Kapkatet) as the project coverage area. The project area has current piped water coverage of less than 10% with 90% of the existing water schemes being pumping schemes which are not sustainable due to the high operational costs. The revenue earned from the pumping water schemes does not compare with the operations and maintenance costs and therefore the County Government has been meeting a good part of the operations and maintenance costs in order to make water affordable to common people.

RECOMMENDATION

The findings based on the disclosed project details and the baseline site assessment indicated that the project is desirable and will support the realization of national and county development goals as outlined in a number of national strategies such as Vision 2030, the Bomet County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP 2013-2017). The proposed National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation (NWCPC) Bosto Dam Project in Bomet County is in line with the spirit of Article 43 of the National Constitution of Kenya on access to clean and safe water for all. The project is also in line with the National Water Policy (2012) obligation for increased per capita water availability above the international benchmark of 1000 m³ by 2030. The proposed project will also contribute towards the realization of the goal of Kenya Vision 2030 Goal of achieving universal access in water and sanitation services by 2030 and will support the national l flagship activities on water harvesting and storage. The project will support the national strategic action for the National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS, 2009) on improving municipal water supply. The project will not violate the goal of National Spatial Plan 2015-2045 towards the conservation of water towers and resources in Spatial Zone 3 (Highlands in the Rift Valley) and other environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs). At international level, the NWCPC Bosto Dam Project in Bomet County will significantly contribute towards the realization of the UN-SDG-6 on ensuring universal access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030.

The Bosto Dam Project in Konoin Constituency is well aligned with the vision of Bomet County Integrated Development Plan, 2013-2017 to be a leading sector in sustainable water management for growth and prosperity of the County. It will support the Bomet CIDP (2013- 2017) mission of sustainable development of water resources for improved livelihoods for the people of Bomet County. The specific CIDP strategies for the water and sanitation sector to be supported by the project are: – a) embarking on water works such as the construction of dams, in the county, and b) expansion of the existing water schemes to increase coverage and ensure adequate water supply.

The project will generate employment opportunities for both skilled and semi-skilled workers resulting directly from the construction and maintenance of the Bosto dam along Kipsonoi River, the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) complex at Bosto Hill and the water pipelines and storage tanks in the water supply area. The project will also generate indirect employment opportunities for people who will be supplying construction materials to the site. The operation phase of the NWCPC) Bosto Dam Project will significantly enhance the current state of water supply in Bomet country. It will reduce the time spent in fetching water by reducing the distance from about 2km to less than 1km. This will boost agriculture and dairy farming as well as trade and commerce in the county by a significant margin. The project once completed will also improve the level of public health by providing safe and clean water which will significantly reducing the problems associated with waterborne diseases.

The construction of the Bosto Dam in the South West Mau Forest Reserve will not have highly significant adverse environment impacts because the project will adopt proper mitigation measures which have been identified in order to avoid negative impacts on the world famous national forest reserve.

This Project is feasible with a perspective of social economic evaluation, financial evaluation and environmental assessment, which has stable economic benefit and strong anti-risk capacity. The analysis of the project alternative options showed that the project is indispensable. Therefore, the project is necessary, and should be implemented as soon as possible. Given the dam construction will be undertaken within the South West Mau Forest Reserve, a comprehensive Environmental Management Plan (EMP) and Environmental Monitoring Strategy has been developed of which the proponent will implement to ensure minimal damage to the environment. We therefore, recommend the project for NEMA approval because it:- a) is well within the spirit of the National Constitution, b)will support in the implementation of the National Water Policy (2012), c) will contribute towards the realization of goals for Kenya‘ Vision 2030 goals, and d) will not violate the strategies for the National Spatial Plan 2015-2045.

In view of the findings of the ESIA, the proposed project is considered as environmentally sound. Further, the project proponent is willing to guarantee that the potential adverse impacts whose means of mitigation have been disclosed in this report and most of them have already been incorporated in the project design will be effectively implemented. On the basis of these findings, it is recommended that the proposed National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation (NWCPC) Bosto Dam Project in Bomet County be approved based on the willingness by the proponent to implement the proposed project in strict adherence to the Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) and Environmental Monitoring Plan. Further, NEMA should issue the proponent with an EIA license as required by Kenya‘s environmental laws.