| dc.description.abstract | The occurrence of the Limuru Trachyte in the Kikuyu area of Kiambu District to the
north west of Nairobi has led to a lot of rock excavation for building and construction of
houses and graveling material for road construction. In the late 1980s, extraction was
undertaken in the area during the construction of the Nairobi-Nakuru dual carriage
highway, which connects Nairobi with Western Kenya and Uganda. However, due to
widespread resource mismanagement associated with the previous regime, a gravel
extraction site, known as Rungiri Quarry was excavated beyond the approved contract
depth thereby interfering with underground water movement resulting in the development
of a water body, the Rungiri Reservoir which is the subject of this research project.
The main objective of the environmental study was to assess the quality of water in the
reservoir against that of nearby streams and a shallow community well in order to
establish the real origin of the reservoir water. The other objective was to assess the
current state of aquatic biodiversity in the reservoir in order to gauge the potential for the
exploitation and multipurpose development of other natural resources. The final objective
was to assess the real life community perception of the reservoir by the Rungiri residents
because of their occasional animosity towards the water body due to cases of loss of
human life.
Data collection involved the use of field measurements for the analysis of water quality
and biodiversity and site interviews for the analysis of community perception. The
project was primary data oriented and the few secondary data included site maps and rock
blasting information. ,
IV
The findings showed that the reservoir and community borehole did not contain good
quality water for drinking purposes as provided by World Health Organization (WHO)
and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) water quality standards. The quality
standards for other uses were not considered. The reservoir was found to be eutrophic and
in early phase of ecological development thereby making it quite suitable for aquaculture
development. It was also found to be home to two water birds namely the Little Grebe
and Egyptian Goose. Two types of macrophytes, namely cattails (Typha sp) and the water
lily (Nymphae sp) were found to be colonizing the waterbody although the successional
progression was found to be rather slow. The residents of Rungiri did not associate the
reservoir with any economic advantage. Majority of them perceived it as an
environmental obstacle in their midst.
However, the analysis of Pearson's Correlation Coefficient ruled out the possibility of the
reservoir being a source of disease increases in the area. This is because, even though the
regression analysis showed that the relationship between the sources of water and disease
outbreaks is positive, the correlation coefficient R square can only relate 0.20% of the
diseases to the water sources which is not significant 99.8% being attributed to other
factors not covered within the study. Besides, during the study, only four cases of typhoid
were reported and no malaria cases reported meaning that the fish in the reservoir could
be consuming themosquito lava rendering the reservoir a mosquito free zone.
From the findings, it was concluded that the negative community perception towards the
water body can be turned around if the community explored ways of exploiting the
reservoir as a resource base that would not only be a source of income through
aquaculture development but would also boost their protein based nutrition especially at
household level. In this regard, it is recommendttd that the local communities be assisted
to enable them realize the greater benefits from the reservoir. By so doing, their negative
perception will change and will become instrumental in improving the poor state of the
environment within and around the reservoir. | en |
