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![]() Kenya's flower power
![]() Workers in Kenya's thriving flower growing industry
By Rosie Goldsmith
If you're not a nature lover before you come to Lake Naivasha, you certainly will be after your stay. The beauty is staggering. There's the lake itself, a smooth, gleaming expanse of water - 150 square kilometres of it.
On shore, not far away, I also saw Colobus monkeys and water buck. Joy Adamson, of "Born Free" fame, used to live on this shore. Elsa the Lion was one of my favourite childhood animals.
Listen to this programme in full
Apparently the lake could disappear if this continues. Also she says, "We are concerned about the fertilizers and pesticides being used by the flower growers they could be using banned substances." She continues, "it is very difficult for us to penetrate the flower farms. They think we are the police for the environment. They think we are enemies." And here's the rub: the flower industry is very profitable. In export and employment terms, it is catching up with Kenya's main foreign earners, tea and coffee. In fact, most of the roses and carnations grown on the shores of the lake end up in supermarkets in the UK. So the reason I came to Kenya was to investigate the environmental and social cost of this phenomenally successful industry. Kenya needs the income and the jobs but at what cost?
Lord Enniskillen believes there is a growing awareness of environmental problems in Kenya, even though there is little money for its protection. "There is no doubt," he says, "that every flower farm round the lake has the potential to do huge, irreversible damage, unless we take precautions.We have one or two growers who are a problem and have been a problem for a long time and we're trying to sort them out. "
Nonetheless the KFC were reluctant to talk to me. Local journalists and environmentalists confirmed that there are indeed a handful of growers who do not adhere to the Kenya Flower Council 's Code of Practice. The transgressors, I am told, extract too much water from the lake, spray their flowers with banned chemicals and pollute the lake.
They tell me of colleagues who are exposed to the chemicals sprayed in the greenhouses and who complain of chest pains. But if the workers protest, they say, "the next day there will be 100 people at the farm gates waiting to take our one job."
"There are those who aren't fully educated yet - there's always a bad penny - but we are working very hard to bring all flower farmers up to the same standards...If we pollute the lake," she continues, "we've killed the industry." Sarah Higgins uses only acceptable chemicals and an environmentally-friendly, computerized drip-irrigation system for her farm; I saw her workers wearing protective clothing. Finally, in the capital Nairobi, one of the Executive Directors of the Kenya Flower Council agreed to see me - Mike Morland. Their nervousness about seeing foreign journalists, especially from a country which represents huge export earnings for them, is due to our perceived power to destroy their industry.
Mr Morland was obviously exasperated by them: "If we find non-compliances (among our members), a compliance request is put in front of them and we go back to check on it. If someone persistently refuses, we would inform all the relevant people we think it is necessary to inform. "This is an industry which has put Kenya on the map; it's extremely important to Kenya economically and it's doing its best to comply with international standards and will continue to do so."
Mike Morland assured me that I could buy my flowers in my supermarket back home with a clear conscience. Also in this edition of Crossing Continents: why the taps are running dry and lights going out in the capital city and the success of another Kenyan rose - this time on the golf course. |
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02 Apr 01 | Africa
30 Mar 01 | Africa
30 Mar 01 | From Our Own Correspondent
15 Mar 01 | Africa
06 Feb 01 | Country profiles
06 Mar 01 | Africa
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