Meru South District - UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative

• Maritime Zones Act (Cap 371)
This is an Act of Parliament enacted to consolidate the law relating to
the territorial waters and continental shelf of Kenya.
-Establish and delimit the exclusive economic zone of Kenya (EEZ)
-Provide for the exploration, exploitation, conservation and
management of the resources of the maritime zones.
• Enforcement
There is poor enforcement of fisheries rules and regulations
The reasons cited for this were legal loopholes found in the Act and poor
operationalization of the provision of the law.
5.3.5 Key Environmental Issues
a) All the rivers traversing the district are the main source of fishery
resource. Catches are declining tremendously in size and numbers. This
is due to over-exploitation, illegal fishing (using herbicides) and use of
unauthorized fishing gears. The government stopped funding the
restocking of the rivers with fish fingerlings to refurbish the fishery
resource.
b) Decline in water levels. Low water levels increases the water
temperatures thus change in aquatic environment. Deforestation,
unsustainable crop and animal husbandry practices have interfered with
environment. The water volumes in our existing river capture fisheries
resource zones have highly caused decline in fish resource.
c) Pollution from processing factories e.g. coffee factories have severally
caused deaths of fish in the rivers and existing fish ponds. Pollution
from tea factories e.g. Weru whose effluent enters River Maara have
killed fish.
Proposed Interventions
1. Encourage restocking of all Meru South Rivers to fingerlings to refurbish fishery
resource.
2. Control pollution mainly from factories.
3. Control illegal fishing and use of unauthorized fishing gears (e.g. through river
patrols and educating fishermen).
4. Water abstraction should be regulated to avoid decline in water levels.
5. Intensify extension services to fish farmers and fishermen.
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