Flowers vs. fish.Farms raising cut flowers flowers cut from the stalk, as for making a bouquet.See also: Flower for export to Europe are being blamed for depletion of the wildlife in Kenya's Lake Naivasha. Locals say the farms contribute to pollution and falling water levels. About three dozen such farms, in which carnations, roses, and other popular florists' items are grown in large plastic greenhouses, have been set up around the lake in the past decade. Kenya's horticultural industry brings more than $60 million into that country's economy each year. Lake Naivasha is a wildlife hotspot, home to giraffes, zebras, antelopes, a once-thriving fishery, and more than 400 bird species. Tens of thousands of people rely on the lake and its watershed for their livelihoods. Fishermen accuse the flower farms of killing fish stocks through pesticide runoff and the use of giant pumps for irrigation irrigation, in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. . The pumps deplete de·plete v. 1. To use up something, such as a nutrient. 2. To empty something out, as the body of electrolytes. the water, while sucking up young fish and eggs. Meanwhile, excess fertilizer from the farms contributes to the spread of the invasive water hyacinth, a destructive exotic plant that spreads rapidly and outcompetes native plants for space and sun light. The flower farms aren't the only problem facing the lake: the local human population has grown sevenfold sevenfold Adjective 1. having seven times as many or as much 2. composed of seven parts Adverb by seven times as many or as much Adj. 1. in the last two decades, from 50,000 to 350,000. Sewage and other urban runoff add their pollutant load to the beleaguered be·lea·guer tr.v. be·lea·guered, be·lea·guer·ing, be·lea·guers 1. To harass; beset: We are beleaguered by problems. 2. To surround with troops; besiege. waters. Meanwhile, deforestation deforestation Process of clearing forests. Rates of deforestation are particularly high in the tropics, where the poor quality of the soil has led to the practice of routine clear-cutting to make new soil available for agricultural use. in the Naivasha basin means that more silt runs into the lake. --AllAfrica.com, 12/2003 |
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