Ten years of sustained investment in the Upper Tana watershed are being credited with strengthening water security for millions of residents in Nairobi, as stakeholders call for expanded financing and partnerships to safeguard the country’s critical water towers.
The milestone was marked during a tenth-anniversary event hosted by the Upper Tana-Nairobi Water Fund Trust, which has spearheaded nature-based solutions to restore degraded landscapes and protect the city’s main water source.
Officials say the initiative has reduced sediment flowing into rivers, improved water quality and stabilized river flows, helping the capital cope with growing demand and climate pressures. The project is also delivering more than 27 million litres of additional water during the dry season each day, easing supply challenges for the city’s population.
Speaking during the commemoration, Festus K. Ng’eno, Principal Secretary in the State Department for Environment and Climate Change, described the water fund as one of Kenya’s strongest public-private partnerships for watershed restoration.
He noted that increasing pressure on the country’s water towers—driven by population growth, land-use changes and climate impacts—requires sustained investment and collaboration.
“Protecting water at the source delivers strong returns through reduced treatment costs, improved water quality and long-term ecosystem resilience,” Ng’eno said, urging development partners, climate funds and private sector actors to scale up investment and replicate the model in other water towers across the country.
According to the Trust’s leadership, upstream conservation has proven to be a cost-effective way of securing reliable water supply for the capital.
Trustee President Eddy Njoroge said the program’s success demonstrates the importance of tackling water security challenges at their source while strengthening partnerships among farmers, government agencies and private sector actors.
Over the past decade, the project has brought more than 470,000 acres of farmland and forests and nearly 980 kilometres of rivers under improved management, while over 260,000 farmers have adopted climate-resilient agricultural practices.
Farmers have also installed 17,000 water pans capable of harvesting over two billion litres of rainwater annually, while conservation efforts have resulted in the planting of 5.9 million trees and the creation of more than 22,000 green jobs.
The initiative has further helped reduce turbidity in river water by 41 percent, saving about 1.2 million dollars in treatment costs for water utilities serving the capital.
The Upper Tana basin—part of the larger Tana River system—supplies roughly 95 percent of the water used by Nairobi’s 4.8 million residents and supports another five million people living in the basin.
The water fund was launched in 2015 by The Nature Conservancy as Africa’s first initiative designed to secure water at its source through collaborative conservation. Today, the model has spread globally, with similar funds operating in more than 30 cities worldwide, including several in Kenya.
Regional Managing Director for Africa at The Nature Conservancy, Ademola Ajagbe, said the results demonstrate the impact of protecting watersheds upstream.
“When you protect water at the source, the impact is immediate and measurable—cleaner water for cities, stronger river flows during dry seasons and better incomes for farmers,” Ajagbe said.
Partners attending the anniversary event also called for greater sustainable financing, stronger private-sector participation and deeper community engagement to ensure the water-fund model continues to deliver benefits and can be expanded to other growing urban centres in Kenya.
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