Nairobi River

In the early days of railway construction, Nairobi river was a tented camp for the Kenya-Uganda railway workers. It had cool and clean water that would then be considered safe for drinking. Back then an ecosystem thrived on this river since it was a source of life.

Narobi river and settlement around it.

Today the story is different as the ecosystem has been altered by human settlement in the city over a century long. Considering all the informal settlement there is in Nairobi, and the industrial discharge it is not a surprise when someone mistakes this river for a sewage system.

When the late John Michuki was the minister for Environment, he had proposed that all people living in the riparian area be relocated, he said that this the only way to reclaim the city river.
Apart from industrial and domestic waste that is discharged into the river, other affluent comes from agricultural activities and car wash runoff water.

Discharge from other places into the river

The boreholes within the Nairobi river basin are also in danger of contamination. Some harmful elements in the rivers will eventually seep through the layers of soil into the ground water system.

The plastic bags

They are our daily wrapping materials for our  products that we buy or even carry from home. By now you should have a clue of what am talking about. I am writing about miss polythene.

Whenever I visit the supermarket goods are packed by an attendant using a plastic bag popularly known as ‘juala’ as an after sale service. Most people  value these branded paper bags with names of their favorite one stop shop without getting concerned with environment impact over time.

polythene bags littered

  

But are these papers harmful to our environment? The answer is definitely yes. This is because these papers are non-biodegradable materials that result to pilling up over time forming heaps and heaps of trash.

Plastic bags are from the same source as all plastic: crude oil. Like everything else manufactured from this non-renewable resource, it has two major drawbacks: in the manufacturing process it emits considerable amounts of pollution, and the product is not biodegradable. 

As of August 2010, between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are being used each year worldwide.

Approximately 100,000 sea turtles and other marine animals die every year because they mistake the bags for food or get strangled in them. More often livestock die due to swallowing of the same bags.

Thanks to Nairobi County government which now seeks to ban the use of plastic bags if the proposed Bill to regulate the use is enacted into Law.

These plastic bags should at least be kept in check in order not to knock our environment off balance.

THE SMOKY ZONE

A habit is like a disease that is one of the well-known phrases among those who happened to be in an English class. Smoking is one of those habits that eventually confine one to a lifetime commitment if the habit is not tamed.

smoking zone in CBD

I have a very close friend in fact a fellow in my trade who has fought this habit for the last six years. Actually am relaxed at last for his birthday resolution to drop the habit.

Smokers cause a lot of pollution ranging from self-pollution to environmental. One stick of a cigarette contains about 700 chemical substances. From my close observation of this friend of mine he could smoke around 3 sticks during the day. Please note that at night I could not tell how many.

Let us give him 5 sticks in 24 hours. When you multiply 700 by 5 it equates to 3500 substances within 24 hours. With or without much scientific knowledge one can easily tell the underlying danger with smoking with such simple arithmetic.

The second form of smoking occurs whenever a smoker does it in public places exposing others to those pollutants. The people next to them smoke as secondary smokers when the smoke is released into the atmosphere.

Smoking in public in Kenya was banned and smoking zones were introduced for the sake of those who smoke.

In Nairobi CBD there are areas secured where the thirst for a cigar is quenched. You should at least visit one of these zones to witness.

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