Kenya water resources

Although much of Kenya is a semi arid land, there is enough manpower to handle all Kenya water resources and maintain the constant supply of fresh water to the citizens.

All Kenya’s major river drain from the central highlands, divided by the rift into those flowing westwards into Lake Victoria and those flowing eastwards towards the Indian Ocean.

There are five major drainage basins: Lake Victoria, the Rift Valley, the Athi-Galana-Sabaki River (and Coastal areas to its south), the Tana River and the northern Ewaso Ng’iro.

Kenya only has a small part of Lake Victoria’s water surface, but the Kenya catchment contributes a disproportionate 33% of its surface inflow, some 470 million cubic meters a year.

Other Pages of Interest

The rift valley contains several basins of internal drainage, forming a chain of endorheic lakes from Lake Natron on the Tanzanian border, through Lakes Magadi, Naivasha, Turkana, Elementaita, Nakuru, Bogoria and Baringo.

These lakes vary in alkalinity; from fresh water Lake Naivasha to the intensely alkaline Lake Magadi.

Lake Turkana is notable as a major volume of (more or less) fresh water in an otherwise arid and barren part of the county, while a number of rivers, including the Turkwel, Kerio, Athi-Galana, Tana and Northern and Southern Ewaso Ng’iro, flow for long distances through dry parts of the country.