Abstract:
Natural and human activities have impacts on the quality of water within a basin
over time. Nairobi River Basin and Mbagathi Sub-basin are affected by diverse land
use activities and changes within the upper, middle and lower sections of the basins.
A comprehensive approach was used to examine the effects of land use activities
within the basins. GIS spatial analysis was employed to examine the spatial
relationship of the effects of land use activities in the basins. There was a significant
change in the quality of water due to sewer line discharges, effluent from water
services providers, solid waste disposal, industrial effluent from settlements and
pesticides and herbicides from agricultural areas. From the above findings, there is
need for stringent measures on conservation of the riparian for the rivers traversing
the informal settlements as they are all non-point sources of pollution and discharge
solid waste and raw effluent directly to the rivers through establishment of buffer
zones and water quality monitoring programme.
