30 June 2008
Nairobi — Even before Mumias Sugar can break ground on an ambitious Sh3 billion sugarcane growing venture on the Tana delta, environmental activists are threatening to rain on its parade.
Workers at a Mumias Sugar plantation harvest the crop. A proposed Tana delta project has run into opposition from activists. Photos/FILE
A group of NGOs and civic bodies, mobilised under the banner of the Kenya Wetlands Forum, are calling on the Government to reverse the recent green light given to the project.
The venture, through which Mumias and Tana and Athi River Development Authority (Tarda) plan to put some 20,000 acres under the crop for the production of fuel and sugar, recently got the approval of the country's premier environmental regulator-National Environment Management Agency (Nema).
"This decision will lead to a national environmental, social and economic disaster. The Tana's ecology will be destroyed yet the economic gains are negative.
"It will seriously damage Kenya's priceless national asset and put the livelihoods of the people living in the delta in jeopardy," the group said at a press conference held on Wednesday.
According to the Kenya Wetlands Forum, the environmental impact assessment study on which Nema's decision was based was hurried.
Implementation of the mass culture of sugarcane in the area would spawn conflicts among local communities, they argue. It also ignores an ongoing dispute on compensation for farmers and fisherfolk in the region.
Arguments
The NGOs' protest against the project is based on a number of arguments: that the benefits of maintaining the status quo are greater than those of sugarcane growing; there is not enough water to support the project; the delta is a special bio-diversity area of great economic benefit to the local community and should be protected.
So much is riding on the project, especially for Mumias, the listed sugar manufacturer, that has been burning the midnight oil to come up with a competitive way of growing sugarcane and adding value to it in this country.
It is generally a settled argument that its Western Kenya base, with its miniscule, labour-intensive, family-owned holdings is the main reason why Kenyan sugar can not get shelf space against more efficient producers from its Comesa peers.
Hence the aggressive branching out into power generation and new geographical areas like the Tana Delta, where it is possible for the firm to have bigger, faster maturing plantations and greater control on production from the farm to the conveyor belt.
Says Mumias Sugar chief executive Evans Kidero: "This project arose from the recognition that Kenya is a net importer and whereas national sugar consumption has continued to rise, production has not.
The project will help bridge the national production deficit currently standing at 200,000 tonnes a year."
Bridge deficits
He reckons that at full capacity (6,000 tonnes a day), the new venture would supply cheaper sugar into the local market and put the brakes on the influx of cheap imports, especially once the current Comesa safeguard, which allows Kenya to heavily tax such imports is lifted.
A feasibility study had been carried out on the project, including an environmental impact assessment.
The project would include a strong social element with investment in education, health and water for so-called "eco-villages" under the venture.
A strong environmental lobby has been gathering pace against projects of the type Mumias and Tarda are proposing for the Tana Delta.
Some ventures that have met similar opposition include Tiomin's titanium mining project in Kwale, Dominion's plantation farming in Siaya District and a KenGen power generation plant in Sondu-Miriu.
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