Nairobi — Environmentalists have raised the red flag over the continued degradation of the Mt Marsabit ecosystem blaming it for prolonged drought and scarcity of water being experienced in the vast arid region.

If the problem is not addressed urgently, the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) has warned the livestock industry, which is the lifeline for communities living in the greater Marsabit, will collapse.

Already, domestic animals and wild animals have started dying in worrying numbers due to lack of pasture and water.

With the destruction of the main forest cover in the region, there is now very little underground water to sustain the livestock.

The area, which is in Northern Kenya, has no permanent river and residents rely solely on boreholes and wells.

As animals continue to die, their owners are not safe either. Cholera and dysentery have hit the region due to lack of clean water. Already, 18 people have succumbed to cholera while scores are recovering at the Laisamis Catholic Hospital.

"We have cholera patients trickling in here one by one," the hospital administrator, Mr Naphtali Mutuma says.

Pastoralists are expressing fear that if it doesn't rain in the next three weeks, most of the livestock will be wiped out.

"We are facing the worst famine ever because, unlike other years, water is becoming inadequate," a herder from Laisamis, Lekwaja Saha says.At Bubisa area, hundreds of sheep and goats died last month after trekking for more than 45 kilometres to access a water point.

Since December, the area around Mt Marsabit has not received rains. Normally, the mountain is the hope for residents of the 66,000 square kilometre region that is either semi-arid or arid.

After raining in the mountain region, water percolates to the lowlands where it hardly rains.

"The forest (Marsabit Forest) is the water catchment for the lowlands," the environmental officer in charge of the larger Marsabit, Mr Mamo Boru Mamo told the Nation.

Although the climate in the lowland is hot, according to Mr Mamo, it used to favour livestock since it had enough water. But not any more.

Currently, most pastoralists in the region have migrated to far areas. Some have crossed over to neighbouring Ethiopia while others have moved to Samburu area and Merti in Isiolo District.

"We had a meeting with our neighbours in Ethiopia who allowed us to take our animals there since we have now cleared all the pastures," chief of Dukana location Tuye Katelo says.

In the latest report on the state of environment in the larger Marsabit, Nema say the 15,280 hectares of forest cover in Mt Marsabit has been reduced to 11,000 hectares in a span of five years.

This is due to over-utilisation of the forest by the community around the mountain, according to the report.

The forest, the report says, is over-utilised as the community usually cut down trees for fire wood. More that 600 women enter the forest daily in search of fire wood, the Nema report says.

In 2005/2006, women were collecting 1,000 tonnes of fire wood per year. "The number has now gone up," Mr Mamo says.

Without a good forest cover, Mr Mamo points out, soils are exposed to erosion.

Livestock entry into the forest is another factor causing the degradation of the forest as herders go with pangas to cut fodder for their animals. In the process they destroy trees and other vegetation.

The animals enter the forest on a daily basis to graze and to access water.

However, drilling of boreholes around the mountain region is being seen as another catastrophe that is ruining the environment.

Several organisations working in the larger Marsabit have drilled boreholes around the mountain area where water is a big problem. Nema has also complained about encroachment of the mountain ecosystem by plot owners.

In the report, Nema blames Marsabit County Council of allocating 425 plots at Kofia Baya Hill, which is a water catchment area.

The report also say that lack of clear understanding on which government department is supposed to manage the forest is another problem. There is the Forest Department and the Kenya Wildlife Service, which manage the forest.

Apart from the Mt Marsabit ecosystem, the region has two other water catchments areas -- Mount Kulal in Laisamis and Huri Hill at the Northern side of Marsabit Forest.

While the former has a forest cover of 45,000 hectares, the latter, which had a forest cover of 30,000 hectares, has been reduced to bare grassland.

Nema is now appealing to donors to come and save the two water towers -- Marsabit Forest and Huri Hill -- to ensure survival of the pastoral communities.