The EIA for the 20,000 ha sugar cane farm in the Tana delta in Kenya is online on <http://www.nema.go.ke>www.nema.go.ke and there are 30 days to submit comments. The file is 15 MB so one needs quite a good connection to download it. Perhaps it would be best if a kind of online alliance is formed to bundle the comments and also to bring together all the relevant biodiversity data that could prove that the area has factual Ramsar status, i.e. fulfills the criteria even though it is not listed.

In spite of serial failure of (almost) all irrigation projects in the Tana delta this project seems to be very strongly supported by central government. The local communities on the other hand seem to be very much against it and envisage trying to obtain Ramsar status for the area (according to a intervillage meeting held 2 days ago in Garsen).

The area is absolutely essential as dry season grazing for about all the cows between the Somali border and Malindi (as mitigation measure it is proposed to create cattle dips and other livestock support services, to keep 5000 ha of the concession as grazing land and to introduce zero grazing (!!!!) which does not seem to take account of the fact that livestock keeping in the area it is essentially nomadic. In the newspaper advertisement in the "Daily Nation" of Thursday December 6th which sums up the expected impacts and mitigation nothing is said on the impacts of the removal of fresh water on the remaining mangrove and on the coastal fisheries or other downstream impacts. The disease control measures also seem lackadaisical in view of what happened in the Senegal River valley (not sure how adequate and suitable sitting facilities for women and physically disabled workers is going to stop rift valley fever, bilharzia, malaria and taeniasis).

Source: MAP News, 192nd Ed. 1 of 2, 12-8-07

http://www.mangroveactionproject.org