THE AFTERMATHS OF SIO RIVER BANKS BURSTINGS 2020.
By Caxton G Juma. Coordinator, Samia Ecosystems CBO)
River Sio bursting it's banks has tremendously affected the farming community living adjacent in various ways, more specifically agricultural, ecological, health and economical brackets. During the flooding most of the farmers crops fields were submerged under waters as the flooding came two months after
planting when the crops height was over the knees. The floods have stayed for 3 months. During which all crops beneath waters on the farms were destroyed. Due to the prolonged floods on farming fields, the soils was saturated with water and eventually the soils turned acidic, a condition that hardly supports terrestrial crops life.
This soils acidic conditions might require some intervention measures to reclaim the affected farming fields back to its normal crops production. There also has been acute soil erosion due to large volumes of surface runoff as saturated soils could not withstand heavy rains experienced during this unusual erratic
long rains against the usual long seasonal rains that used to benefit the farmers with high crops yields. This situation entirely have subjected farmers to massive crops destruction. The crops field yields are by no means any harvest for the farmers eventually there is much hunger now and, until next season of
planting probably during short rains towards end of the year.
Ecological effects of Sio River flood evidently have been adverse. Firstly, the top soils microorganisms which supports crop growth have been destroyed due to prolonged floods submerging the farming fields. The mongoose that have been feeding on snakes in the ecosystem have drown and much numbers killed because the wetlands was saturated with water for prolonged period. They have faced extinction because on the main landscape they only scavenge on poultry unlike in the wetlands they feed on snakes, birds, caged black snails and fish among others insects.
A lot of biodiversity in the wetlands have River banks bursting eg Bees among other been tremendously affected by the Sio insects. Birds like guinea fowl also hibernated due to prolonged floods as they normally nest on the ground of wetlands. Sio Siteko wetlands for the first time witnessed massive pollution by on-farm chemicals washed by surface runoff from the farming fields as the floods waters in the wetlands would smell and even change the colour to black and whoever stepped in would itch on body contact. There is Lake Victoria back flow along the mouth of Sio River for the first time in history of Samia Sub County and unlike the case of Budalangi along the mouth of River Nzoia that has been common. Subsequently, fish populations have been affected as fishing require deep lake unlike when fish catch was evident along the Sio River mouth which experience much silt deposits and pollution from on-farm chemicals.
Siltation is rampant due to sugar cane plantation that Busia Sugar Company has tried to establish on Sio Siteko wetlands on wetlands encroachment because had they observed community participation on the entry point they would not be encountering the losses.