Arising from the dry, compacted soil of Mount Kilimanjaro’s lowest slopes, the Soko Spring appears as a bountiful oasis. Water gurgles from the ground, small fish swim and palms line the channel that ultimately feeds Tanzania’s Pangani River. Yet, appearances can deceive and the gushing water has, in reality, been the source of much local tension.

Since 1994, we have been aware of the impacts of activities on users further downstream,” says Anderson Kimati, Secretary of Kahe East Water Users Association, under whose jurisdiction Soko falls. 

Kimati is standing at the spring’s source and, as he talks, women and children draw water and wash clothes, men bathe themselves a short distance away and herds of cattle and goats are driven across the parched plains to drink. 

These daily activities are a stark illustration of the continued stress placed on Soko. The spring is increasingly polluted, over extraction is common, and livestock travel long distances through planted croplands to access the water. The pressures are real and increasingly difficult to manage. Six villages of over 8000 people are dependent on the healthy functioning of Soko – and more people are migrating to the area on the perceived promise of water. 

Our father’s fathers used this spring and so do we,” says Kimati, in reference to the ancient traditions of livestock, maize, rice and bean farming that dominate the landscape. “We are mostly farmers, but these days there are also businesses and markets relying on the water.” 

While no physical conflict has ever transpired, the Same District Office, the governing local authority of the region, is sensitive to the growing resentment between different water users and, in 2000, set about establishing the Kahe East Water Users Association on which four members from each village sit. The members, in turn, elect the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. 

The establishment of the new organisation was in line with government policy on local-level water management and its efforts were given further momentum with support from the Pangani Basin Water Management Project (PBWMP) that assists in the promotion of stakeholder engagement and conflict resolution. Through governance and dialogue NGO Pamoja Trust, the PBWMP provides support to the Kahe East’s secretariat by facilitating stakeholder processes, identifying problem resolution techniques and documenting the engagement. 

All issues are important in the area, but it is clearly those relating to agricultural security that bring out the passion. Cattle, in particular, are symbols of wealth and prestige in the region, and the fact that they are forced to walk up to six kilometres a day and across a dangerous railway line to reach their drinking water, does not sit well with local farmers. 

We identified the need to do something about this. Cattle are being killed unnecessarily when crossing the line,” explains Kimati.

Chairman of the Association, Emmanuel Masichi, is animated when describing plans to pipe water 500 metres from the spring, under the railway line, to a proposed drinking trough some distance from the spring and, importantly, from the dangers of passing trains. It is a move that will secure the livestock and the livelihoods of the farmers and reduce the pressure on the spring. 

At the site, Masichi draws the plans for the trough in the ground. His pointing stone digging through the soil like a small plough shed.  

It’s taken a lot of planning and discussion among the wazee (village elders), but it will be done,” says Masichi, who has only recently been elected to the Association. Members typically serve a three year term before being replaced. “This way, the cattle walk less, they are safe  they don’t disturb the crops and the spring is protected.”

The  trough is being built in partnership between IUCN, the Pangani Basin Water Office (the overriding authority for the river basin), and PAMOJA TRUST, through the facilitation of the PBWMP, with in-kind labour being supplied by the villagers. 

One wonders whether such a simple, but effective, solution could have been possible prior to the establishment of Water Association and the willpower of the District and the villages? 

“The water users and the Association had been working together, but in a haphazard fashion,” says Nasim Losai, a dialogue facilitator with Pamoja. “Now they are coordinated and focussed.” 

Achieving that coordination and focus is, perhaps, the stuff of another story. In the meantime Kimati and Masichi nod their heads in approval as they watch, with concern, a young herd boy drive another line of cattle across the fatal railway line on their way to the daily drink at Soko. The trough can not be built quickly enough.
Written by Alex Hetherington