Kisumu's lost spring bubbles back to life after decades of dryness

At Ochieng Omondi’s homestead in Kajulu, Kisumu county, a piped water system thrives, standing as a testament of the family’s source of pride and relief.

“Our wives no longer have to go to the river to fetch water,” he says, his face illuminating with a delighted grin.

Ochieng enjoys water from a bustling spring that was, until 2015, extinct.

Awach Kanyandiga spring supplies water to over 100 families downhill.

“The spring water is collected, treated with chlorine, pumped to a community tank uphill using solar power from where it flows through gravity to homesteads,” Omondi says.

The spring is among at least seven similar ones that dried up – or became seasonal – within the Kajulu Forest catchment in the late 1980s.

Seventy-six-year-old John Omollo, says in the days of his childhood, Kajulu was like paradise.

“It was home to an array of flora and fauna. The springs were alive. Everyone who lived here  in 1950s and 1960s, got their water from the springs. The water was clean and usable.

“In fact, I remember around 1964, President Jomo Kenyatta, visited Nyanza Province following massive floods. Kajulu withstood the floods so well – perhaps because of its topography and abundance of trees. Kenyatta ordered that Nyanza shall be given relief food – except for Kajulu. He said Kajulu was food sufficient,” says Omollo.

In the 70s, Kisumu Town was coming up. Demand for charcoal was high.

“That was the time Kajulu forest began losing trees. Young men had found a source of income. A sack of charcoal fetched Sh2.5 (very good price at the time). Those days charcoal was an ideal fuel source. We did not have gas,” Omollo says.

By late 80s the forest was looking bare and treeless. Water springs shrank or completely disappeared.

“The village lost its allure: biodiversity was gone. Animals exited the scene and plant species got lost,” says 35-year-old Benedict Adero.

Adero is the founder of Kajulu Community Forest Association (K-CFA).

“Since 2009, we have grown over 500,000 trees – and still counting. We have planted indigenous tree varieties like Sesbania sesban and Markhamia lutea. We also plant local fruit tree varieties like guavas, mango and avocado,” he says.

Omollo credits Adero and K-CFA for the springs coming alive again.

In 2022, the organisation was trained by the Western Kenya Water Project (WKWP), a five-year project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), on water resources management.

“Now, as a community forest association – registered under the Kenya Forest Act – we are mandated to conserve, maintain and protect the forest as we also benefit from it. With the help of WKWP we have installed 34 beehives. We sell the honey and earn revenue,” Adero says.

Calvin Odhiambo is the head of Forest Security at K-CFA. He is always on the lookout for any logging or charcoal burning.

“This year alone we have nabbed 4 people burning charcoal in the forest. We apprehended them and handed them over to the authorities,” he says.

As a result of the training K-CFA, now with 74 members, have developed an ideal ecosystem for Kajulu: a road map towards a harmonious ecosystem where man thrives alongside nature.

“In our plan we will grow bamboo trees and Vetiver grass. We want the springs to produce clean water and the river to be filled with it. We plan to fence off the springs. We want to develop water harvesting systems – at least one per household so that villagers with no piped water would not need to disturb or misuse the rivers and the springs,” Odhiambo says.

Between November 6 and 7, 2024, Adero will be showcasing best practices on Kajulu’s restoration journey at a learning conference on partnerships for water security in the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB), that will take place in Kisumu.

WKWP aims to strengthen rural water institutions through targeted capacity-building initiatives, including training, coaching, mentorship and peer learning.

“The purpose of the project is to increase the availability of and access to, water services while enabling better management of water resources, including through the development of sustainable infrastructure and conservation of catchment areas,” says Japheth Mbuvi, the Chief of Party at WKWP.

The project is implemented in eight western Kenya counties: Bungoma, Busia, Homa Bay, Kakamega, Kisii, Kisumu, Migori, and Siaya.

The restoration efforts that began with Adero are paying off: not just with rebound spring water but also with an ecosystem that is growing richer by the day.

“We are seeing birds that even the oldest in the village can’t name: they have never seen them. We have recorded monitor lizards coming back. Two hyenas have also been sighted in the forest. It is a testimony that Kajulu is slowly but surely becoming a lively ecosystem that it ought to be,” he says.

When we arrived at Adero’s homestead he showed us pictures of tourists from Germany who had visited the forest the previous day for purposes of bird watching.

“Eco-tourism is just but another benefit of protecting this forest. In line with our ambitions, we ask all tourists who visit to at least plant one tree before they go back. And that’s exactly what we did.”

The group is planning to further earn from by converting it into a tourist site for camping and other leisurely activities.

As we sat under an indigenous tree with Omollo tiny droplets of rain were coming down and we could hear rumbling in the distant skies.“See,” he would say, pointing at the sky, “the trees are pulling rain.”