Mara River Basin Transboundary Integrated Water Resources Management and Development Project Mara River Basin Monograph

Abstract

The Mara River Basin is shared between Kenya and Tanzania and covers seven districts: Nakuru, Bomet, Narok, Transmara, Serengeti, Tarime, and Musoma Rural. The river has a catchment area of about 13,750 km2, with an upper basin area of about 8,941 km2 (65%) in Kenya and a lower basin area of about 4,809 km2 (35%) in Tanzania. The location and some features of the Mara river basin is shown in Figure 2.1 in Chapter 2 below. The river, which discharges into Lake Victoria and is thus part of the Nile River Basin, rises from the Enapuyapui swamp in the forested Mau Escarpment as the Amala and Nyangores tributaries which flow through the Mau forest, tea plantations, settlements, and small-scale agricultural lands in Kenya before converging to form the Mara River in a region dominated by large-scale agriculture. The Mara River meanders through Masai Group Ranches, the Masai-Mara National Reserve, and the Serengeti National Park. In these protected areas two other main tributaries, the Talek River and the Sand River, join the Mara River. The mainstem Mara River continues flowing through the savannah grasslands of the Serengeti region in Tanzania before entering the Mara Swamp and finally discharging into Lake Victoria near Musoma town. Thus, the Mara River is part of the Lake Victoria drainage system as well as the greater Nile River Basin.