Total Economic Value of Maasai Mau, Trans Mara and Eastern Mau ...

The upper catchment of the Mara River Basin comprises a section characterized bylarge-scale agricultural farms, some of which are irrigated using water from the river. Inthe lower section, the Mara River runs through the open savannah grassland protectedby the Maasai Mara Reserve on the Kenyan side and the Serengeti National Park on theTanzanian side. Just before the Mara River drains into Lake Victoria, there is a floodplain. The downstream value of the forests results principally from the support to thewildlife that attracts foreign currency and incomes to the country through tourism,irrigated agriculture and livestock support. The value of water to wildlife and thelodges has been captured through the value of the catchment to tourism.The Mara River Basin is critical for the supply of water to populations in Kenya andTanzania. The total consumptive water demand in the basin is estimated at 24 millioncubic metres per year where large-scale irrigation accounts for 51%, human domesticdemand 20% and livestock 17% (Hoffman, 2007). Using these proportions, 6,505,175m 3of water are required to support livestock in the area. Hoffman (2007) reported that thepopulation living in the Kenyan and Tanzanian part of the Mara River Basin was556,497 and 282,204 people respectively. Using proportional basis the demand for waterfor households in the basin is 4.8 million cubic metres.A single borehole can provide water for 300 persons (IUCN, 2002). The total cost ofconstructing boreholes is assumed to be uniform in all areas of the river basin andinclude the cost of hydrological survey, borehole drilling, and annual boreholemaintenance and permit charges. The annual cost of drilling a borehole was estimatedas an average of the cost of drilling boreholes in six districts of the Mt. Elgon region(Obiri et al., 2009) as US$ 21,185. Annual borehole maintenance cost was US$ 1,476. Theboreholes would fall under class D type for licensing and thus the owners must pay theWater Resource Management Authority an additional US$ 533 as assessment cost andUS$ 667 as permit charges for using the water. Using the replacement cost method, thelifespan of a borehole is 30 years (www.nationaldriller.com) and the cost incurred asreplacement cost of boreholes is US$ 1,237,984. Thus the total cost of boreholes tosupply water for domestic purposes in the Mara River Basin was estimated atUS$ 4,733,674 (Table 5).During the dry season, there is hardly any water in the river basin. Up to 30% of theanimals can be lost without the water provided by the Mara River. Indeed, in 2000pastoralists lost 35% of their cattle due to drought (Ottichilo et al., 2001; Reid et al.,2003). The demand for water by livestock was estimated based on the Hoffman (2007)study at 4.08 million cubic metres. With a daily demand of 40 litres of water per cattle33