The Rivers of Peace project, begun by GPFF in August 2008 with the cleanup of the Nairobi River, entered a new phase Monday 28 June with the kickoff of a major restoration of the Nairobi Dam, in which GPFF is cooperating with the Kenya government.

Before addressing the gathered volunteers and Nairobi media, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and GPFF Chairman Dr. Hyun Jin Moon squeezed into the cab of a back-hoe that scooped up some of the water hyacinth that covers most of the surface of the dam are and dropped it into a waiting truck to be carted away.

This marked the start of an intensive three-day campaign to launch the restoration that is expected to be completed over 14 months. GPFF took the lead in mobilizing hundreds of volunteer groups and over 3000 youth volunteers from around the country to get the ball rolling. The effort grew out of the Nairobi River cleanup since 2008, when GPFF’s initiative became the largest voluntary effort to restore the river. As it grew, it engaged schools, community organizations, and government departments in the effort. Three months after the GPFF initiative began, the Kenyan government picked up on the idea and formally established an official river initiative.

Prime Minister Odinga thanked Dr. Moon and GPFF Monday for investing in the reclamation of the dam and revealed that he had asked Dr. Moon two years ago during the Nairobi River project if GPFF could help with the restoration of the dam once the river cleanup was completed. The government started the Nairobi Dam Trust in 2004 to move on restoring the area but little had happened since.

GPFF with its ability to mobilize volunteer youth, and to work outside of government red tape is a natural partner to finally bring progress on a project close to PM Odinga’s heart. The Dam is in his constituency and also in the area where he grew up.

“When I was a young boy I used to play around the dam,” he told the volunteers. He said he had also courted his wife there. He recalled an area of clean water where people fished, sailed and did other water sports. The reservoir created by the dam served as an emergency water supply for the city, but today the water is polluted and not fit for human consumption.

The reservoir borders the Kibera slum, home to about 800,000 people and thought to be the largest slum in Africa. Urban and industrial development in Kenya has come at an environmental and social cost. Once known as the “green city in the sun,” Nairobi is far from that today. The dam is a symbol of the problem.

The dam became a dumping ground for industrial and domestic waste from Kibera and an outlet for raw sewage. Water hyacinth thrives on the filthy water and now covers almost the entire surface. In addition some of the public land surrounding the dam was taken over by private developers who have built multi-story apartments on it.

The restoration of the dam is one of a number of ongoing GPFF activities leading up to the Global Peace Convention and Global Peace Festival in Nairobi from November 17-20, 2010. The Convention is under the patronage of President Kibaki and the Festival under the patronage of Prime Minister Odinga respectively. The Festival will be held at Nyayo Stadium in November, and is expected to draw 50,000 youth.

In addition to environmental projects, GPFF is also promoting character education initiatives particularly directed toward young leaders. The Rift Valley, scene of the worst of the 2007-8 post-election violence, has been a major focus of education, bringing youth leaders from different tribal groupings together to avoid recurrence of the earlier tragedy in which over 1200 people were killed. Many of the volunteers dredging water hyacinth from the dam Monday were recent graduates of character education programs in Kibera. The programs are not just about classroom learning but stress the application of the lessons learned through practical service work like the dam cleanup.

The removal of the water hyacinth is volunteer-led and expected to take about three months. It should be finished in time for the Global Peace Convention and Festival. The removed vegetation is then processed by one of the cleanup partners, Effective Micro-Organism Technologies Limited, and turned into fertilizer for agricultural use. Ten thousand trees are expected to be planted throughout the area as it is cleaned. After the hyacinth removal silt has to be dredged from the reservoir and the water cleaned. Dow Chemical will be a partner on the water purification. The final stage will be the development of a riverfront commercial area and leisure facilities for which the designs are already drawn up.