Naivasha

A very exciting day in terms of meeting a set of new colleagues from various offices, and the start of a week-long workshop to collaboratively work on something together. Colleagues representing WWF offices in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique convened in Nairobi and boarded a bus to Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley region, where we will be developing a proposal for transboundary freshwater and conservation work between now and Friday. These sort of settings are much more my jam than the isolated working practices of the Covid era.

Naivasha is located next to one of several well-known lakes in the Kenyan section of the Great Rift Valley. I got the sense that we’d be confined to a meeting room for much of the week so after arriving I dashed towards the lake to try and get a look at it. Even though it was close by, much of the lakeshore appeared to be in private hands, blocking public access, which is a shame. I could only make it before sunset by hustling through the entrance to a spa and taking a walk through the grounds accompanied by a security guard.

It was good to see the lake even in fading light. As well as being surrounded by many lodges, Naivasha is an area of intensive horticulture, with farms accused of allowing too many chemicals to reach the lake. The ravages of climate change are also causing impacts such as flooding, and I could see that lakeside trees had been left dead, and manicured tourist lawns inundated by rising waters.