Government Initiates Land Degradation Policy
The Ministry of Water, Sanitation, and Irrigation, through the State Department for Irrigation, is currently developing a policy aimed at addressing land degradation. Ian Thandi, the Director of Climate Change Resilience for Food and Water Security at the Ministry, has highlighted the importance of this policy in helping Kenya reclaim degraded land.
In recent years, Kenya has experienced a significant increase in land degradation, which has led to issues such as aridity, food insecurity, water scarcity, poor soil quality, and the invasion of invasive species.
In a draft Bill proposed, the Ministry aims to facilitate the sustainable reclamation of degraded and waste lands, ultimately achieving land degradation neutrality. This will enhance food and water security and promote environmental sustainability and socio-economic development.
It will also coordinate the planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of land reclamation strategies for enhanced synergy among stakeholders both at the national and county levels and promote greater resource mobilization and investments for land reclamation, including land degradation neutrality.
Through land reclamation, the government intends to put more land into irrigation and other uses to improve food security and boost the economy.
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Nakuru County Pushes for Clean Energy Adoption
The County Government of Nakuru is stepping up efforts to accelerate the adoption of modern clean cooking technologies to mitigate the effects of climate change and reduce cases of diseases caused by dirty fuels.
The County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Water, Environment, Energy, Climate Change, and Natural Resources Dr. Nelson Maara said they were conducting a public awareness campaign on promoting clean cooking as a way of supporting the national government’s Clean Cooking Strategy formulated by the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum aimed at keeping Kenya on track to achieving its target of universal access to clean energy by 2028.
Dr. Maara further said that the devolved unit’s administration had prioritized deploying renewable energy technologies, including biogas systems, solar energy, and clean cooking solutions, especially in rural and peri-urban areas.
The CECM spoke after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the 3E (Environment, Entrepreneurship, and Energy) group. The MoU aims to accelerate climate-smart agriculture, clean energy access, and green entrepreneurship initiatives to enhance food security and sustainable development in the region.
