Down the Athi River, farmers and fishermen watch as their livelihoods are washed away

Hassan Musyoka, a pump operator at the River Athi intake where water is drawn for treatment at Kangu Kangu water treatment plant. [Philip Muasya, Standard]

Some idiots have been dumping chemical waste into the Athi River, and fishermen who rely on the river to supply them with food, and farmers who subsist by cultivating farms along its banks are counting their losses. It’s not just about lost livelihoods, but death of an entire ecosystem.

Fishes of the water, the best barometer of the quality of the water have been floating lifeless along the stretches of the river to infer the scale of the poisoning.

It is suspected that some entities from Nairobi’s industrial district are dumping industrial waste there. Also, raw sewer is being emptied by death merchants from some neighbourhoods.

For a city that claims to be the most prosperous and fastest growing in East and Central Africa, and whose governor insists the only room left to grow is vertically, I wonder how decay and death constitute progress.

Which calls to mind former Environment Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale’s commitment to restore the Nairobi River. I don’t think that happened, and Duale has a perfect excuse because he was on the move before he could settle into the position.

I won’t say anything about the National Environmental Management Authority, because that entity is the most clueless on just about everything, especially that which pertains to environmental pollution.

This leaves the communities that depend on Athi River with few choices, besides sitting and watching their livelihoods being washed away.

Indeed, as Nairobians have come to acknowledge, though grudgingly, indeed, choices have consequences.