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The Mara River basin extends over an area of roughly 13,750 square kilometers. Two thirds of this area is in Kenya, with the rest in Tanzania.[WREM, pg. 10]

Rainfall averages approximately 1400 mm per year in the highland areas of the basin, and about 600 mm per year in the plains areas. [WREM, pg. 10]

Rainfall is predicted to stay at these levels, although data recording on precipitation is scarce and patchy due to the rainfall recording stations being in need of repairs or outright nonfunctional. [WREM, pg. 20]

[Image from WREM, pg. 15]

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The Mara River Basin has approximately 1.1 million people that live in its area and are reliant upon the ecosystem. 775,000 of these people live in the Kenyan portion of the basin, with the remaining 325,000 living in the Tanzanian area. The fertile land of the basin has attracted enough people to form two main urban centers:  Musoma with a population of 120,000 and Bomet with a population of 95,000. The rest of the population in the area are in smaller towns and rural areas.
[WREM, pg. 10-11]

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The land in the Mara River Basin is predominantly used for farming. A staggering 62% of households in the area take part in some sort of agricultural work. The next most common use is livestock rearing. These two industries both take advantage of the fertile land and its higher water content than surrounding areas. Another significantly land use is for tourism, with the world renowned Maasai Mara-Serengeti wildlife reserve and other places of natural beauty that attract visitors. In the southern portion of the basin, gold deposits also attract mining operations.
[WREM,  pg. 11]

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While there is little outright conflict over the Mara River Basin, the management of it by Kenya and Tanzania has been partially cooperative but also has a lot of lacking communication. Both governments are working independently towards solutions for dumping waste into the river, and both are working independently towards subsidizing sustainable practices. Within Kenya, lack of communication on management of the river basin has caused conflict between the energy and irrigation sectors who are both vying for different ways of using the flow of the river. [WREM, pg. 70]  [TheCitizen]

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The Mara River Basin has numerous problems affecting its well being, which manifests in the form of decreased water quality, increased flow volatility, and other symptoms. The major problems are as follows:

Soil Erosion and high sediment loads

Deforestation of the Mau forest from human settlement and expansion into the valuable land of the Mara river basin.

Conflict between humans and wildlife due to agricultural encroachment onto critical wildlife corridors.

Diminishing water quality and reduced water quantity because of inefficient agricultural processes and excessive water abstractions.

Polluted water due to lack of waste dumping regulation. Things like mining byproducts, sanitation facility overflow and overused agricultural chemical runoff all make their way into the water.

More frequent and intense floods and droughts, because of land use change and climate change.

Lack of coordination between the Tanzanian government and the Kenyan government for transboundary water resource management.

[WREM, pg. 11]

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The Mara River Basin has a variety of habitats ranging from plains to forests to swamps and wetlands. One of the biggest concerns with the area is that human encroachment into the ecosystem is largely unrestricted, outside of a few nature reserves. As human populations destroy existing habitats to make room for their own settlements, some of the precious habitats of the basin area can be fragmented or even outright destroyed if the encroachment goes far enough. Additionally, over harvesting of certain plants and illegal poaching of certain animals has led them to be endangered and caused some to be on the verge of extinction. The loss of habitat coupled with the over harvesting and poaching are a very big threat to the biodiversity of the ecosystem. [WREM, pg. 249]

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The ecosystems of the Mara River Basin provide lots of services to the people in and around them. The forests do a lot of carbon sequestration and provide habitat to many of the areas abundant species, and the wetlands perform things like "water storage, flood control, water filtration, water recharge
and discharge, nutrient cycling, pollution control, wildlife habitats and landscaping." [WREM, pg. 251] As shown in the diagram below, there has been large scale human encroachment into these areas. This encroachment is fueled by the desire to access some of the services provided by the ecosystems, but unfortunately that same encroachment is damaging the ecosystem. Things like unsustainable water use, bringing in foreign and invasive species as crops or livestock, and rampant deforestation without replanting all take their toll on the environment.

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The Mara River Basin has several sources of pollution, including point sources and nonpoint sources. The two primary point pollution sources are sewage seepage into groundwater from rural pit latrines and other urban areas, and partially treated or untreated industrial effluents from mining activities. The most significant nonpoint pollution source in the Mara River basin is runoff. The pollutants found within this runoff are from sub-sources like agricultural and livestock management, human settlement, national parks and wildlife reserves, and mining areas. The upper and middle portions of the river basin receive mostly organic pollutants, like sewage or decaying/diseased organic matter from the wildlife refuges. The lower part of the basin is mostly polluted by hazardous chemical like mercury and cyanide, which are used commonly in the gold mining that takes place there. [WREM, pg. 55]

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In the Mara River Basin as a whole, there is a cyclical pattern of wet years and dry years. Because of the multi year nature of this cycle, the rainfall measurements taken from the Mara River Basin in the graphs below also contain a trend line for the average rainfall over the last three years. These graphs also indicate a worrying downward trend in the annual rainfall in the area, as well as longer periods of drought. This has been attributed either to the deforestation of the area or climate change in general, but in either case the actions of humans are having a negative impact on this area. Since the high rainfall in the Mara River Basin is one of the big draws for people to move there, and the increased population there is likely part of the cause of the decreased rainfall, this problem could become exponentially worse in the future if it is not managed. [WREM, pg. 26]

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The government of Kenya has a system for making sure that communities have access to clean water, but this systems is largely driven by demand from people already living in a location that needs clean water rather than preemptively put in place. In Kenya, the majority of rural water systems come from non-piped sources and are thus particularly vulnerable to human pollutants like runoff into surface water or latrine seepage into ground water which a shallow well draws from. In places with a more dense population the government has done work to make improved pit latrines that don't leak contaminants into nearby water, but for some of the more arid locations with sparse pastoral communities they don't have the improved latrines and thus their access to sanitary water is very poor. [WREM, pg. 77]

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Tanzania has more problems than Kenya with getting clean water to its citizens. This is the result of most of the pollution in the Mara River Basin being things that get into the river, and Tanzania being downriver from Kenya. As you can see in the table below, the demand for water is increasing at a high rate (higher than the rate of population growth in the country). Since they are already having trouble with getting clean water to their citizens, both rural and urban, this is projected to be a major problem for the country. Though this information is somewhat dated, in 2003 only 53% of Tanzanian's in rural areas and 73% in urban areas had access to clean water. [WREM, pg. 79]

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In Kenya, power from hydroelectric sources is the primary source of electricity. A majority of the population in Kenya does not use electricity for their cooking or heating. Instead they primarily use wood for those activities, and the wood is taken from the forested parts of the Mara River Basin. Electricity is used only in some select buildings in more industrialized urban areas. Because much of this wood is harvested and then burned without going through a point of sale or something similar, it is difficult to measure the quantity of wood used. This also poses a problem for the Kenyan government in that it is hard to regulate where people can take wood from without the use of considerable manpower to guard protected woodland areas. [WREM, pg. 303-304]

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Agriculture plays an important role in the Kenyan economy. Between farmed goods and their related offshoot industries like manufacturing and distribution of product, agriculture accounts for 53% of Kenya's GDP. About 80% of the population of Kenya works in the agricultural sector. As talked about in the "Challenges of Climate Change" post, Kenya is suffering from increased droughts as a result of climate change and deforestation. The Mara River Basin provides the nutrients and water that agriculture requires to thrive, but these droughts and other problems like eroding riverbanks and more violent floods are posing serious problems to the livelihood of the people of Kenya. With agriculture playing such a keystone role in the Kenyan economy and the environment being less and less able to support agriculture, this is a very serious problem. [WREM, pg. 106]

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The same wood burning situation that Kenya has also exists in Tanzania, but to an even more extreme level. In rural areas, 99+% of energy for cooking comes from biomass fuels like firewood and charcoal. In urban areas, the percentage of biomass based fuels is still very high at around 95%. The same as in Kenya, whether the wood that fuels these things is coming from protected woodland areas or not is difficult to tell. The ubiquitous use of firewood as fuel is a contributing factor to the deforestation of the Mara River Basin, since replanting efforts are very limited or even nonexistent in some areas. [WREM, pg. 303 & 305]

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Agriculture in Tanzania is equally important as it is in Kenya. Although more of the Tanzanian agriculture comes in the form of fishing and livestock rearing than the Kenyan economy, about 80% of the population works in the agriculture industry. Many of these people are subsistence farmers, who use their produce as their primary food source and only sell what they have left over. Tanzania faces many of the same problems as Kenya. Since the Mara River Basin provides much of the most fertile land for agricultural uses, the deforestation of the forested areas for conversion into farmland is common. This deforestation leads to the erosion of riverbanks, the release of carbon into the atmosphere, the destruction of wildlife habitat, and all sorts of other problems. If the deforestation is not addressed quickly and effectively, things like irreparable damage to the ecosystem and the endangerment or extinction of species could occur. [WREM, pg. 107-110]

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Current Management of the Mara River Basin

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Current Management of the Mara River Basin

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While there is an agency set up between Tanzania and Kenya for the joint management of some of the water resources of the Mara River Basin, the transition from state based to a joint operation has been slow. The Basin Water Offices (BWO) are in charge of things like "...regulating, monitoring, and policing of water use; controlling water pollution in the Basin; issuing water rights; facilitating and assisting in the formation of water users associations; billing and collecting water user fees; and creating awareness among water users regarding water resources management." [WREM, pg. 395] These offices are still in their infancy, but hopefully if they are managed correctly they can help protect the Mara River Basin.

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Like many governments have found success with, limiting the amount of certain types of pollutants that the river basin can tolerate would have a profound environmental benefit. This works well with the triple bottom line concept because it only slightly hits the profits of the companies pumping pollutants into the river, it greatly helps the environment in which the policies are placed, and it doesn't require any effort on the part of the general populace.

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The woodlands of the Mara River Basin are seen as both an obstacle and a resource; people want to clear the trees out and settle on the land, and people also want to burn the wood for energy. Currently, when people want to expand into an area they typically just burn the woods down and settle afterwards. If this would could instead be harvested and used as fuel, it would reduce the need for additional wood to be chopped down. This could be coupled with some reforestation efforts in at risk areas, perhaps subsidized by the government to make sure that it is economically sound for people to help do it. Keeping the forested parts of the Mara River Basin forested is massively beneficial for riverbank stability, carbon sequestration, and wildlife habitat protection, and any efforts to reduce deforestation are good for the area.

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This is a solution that is already being implemented and is having good success in increasing sanitary water access for the populations of Kenya and Tanzania. Improved versions of the pit latrines commonly used in the area are being installed. These improved latrines do not leak untreated sewage into the ground water of the area nearby. While this isn't directly profitable for the government to do, it has major benefits for both the environment and the people living in it. Since it hits two of the three concepts in the triple bottom line very well, it is a good solution and one that many citizens who now have clean drinking water are thankful for.

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Ready Player One shows a pretty bleak but not entirely unlikely future for Earth. The following paragraph describes what human interference has done to the environment :

“Also, it turns out that burning all of those fossil fuels had some nasty side effects, like raising the temperature of our planet and screwing up the environment. So now the polar ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, and the weather is all messed up. Plants and animals are dying off in record numbers, and lots of people are starving and homeless. And we’re still fighting wars with each other, mostly over the few resources we have left.“ [Cline, pg. 17]

The seasonal droughts and floods in the Mara River Basin have already become more unpredictable and violent as a result of some combination of climate change and deforestation, both of which can be thought of as human exploitation of nature for material gain. With habitat fragmentation and loss already putting some species in danger, extinction is well within the realm of possibility. The countries of Kenya and Tanzania already struggle with food insecurity. Much of the description of Ready Player One's Earth actually lines up very closely to our own Earth. The difference is that if we make changes to protect our environment now, we can alter course and have a brighter future than the one described in the book. Hopefully this comes to pass, as we become more aware of our actions and their consequences.

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WREM International Inc., Mara River Basin Monograph, Mara River Basin Transboundary Integrated Water Resources Management and Development Project, Final Technical Report, Atlanta, December 2008, 446p.
(Referenced as "WREM" )

News@tz.nationmedia.com, Z. U. (2018, September 05). Kenya's Mara River plans prompt Tanzania response. Retrieved from https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/Kenya-s-Mara-River-plans-prompt-Tanzania-response/1840340-4744858-9i3ha3/index.html
(Referenced as "TheCitizen" )

Cline, E., & Aa, R. V. (2018). Ready Player One. Amsterdam: Q.
(Referenced as "Cline")