appraisal drilling of geothermal wells in olkaria domes - Orkustofnun

Report 13 293 Ogola• In 1963 Naivasha lost its district status due to federal boundary redefinition;• In 1979 it became an urban council with 6 elected and 2 nominated councillors;• In 1980 the town was made a town council by presidential decree;• In 1982 the town was gazetted and its boundaries extended from 250 km 2 to 941 km 2 ;• In 1993 the town was elevated to a full municipal council status with a Mayor, and thejurisdiction of the council was extended to the neighbouring agricultural land and the Hells GateNational Park.The council has 212 employees with over 90% in low-grade employment. There are four majordepartments, the town clerk, town treasurer, town planning, works and conservancy and socialservices, education and housing departments. Though the council covers an area with great economicoutput, the council has suffered a shortfall in its budget and lacks the capital to improve theinfrastructure in the area. Revenue collection is poor and not well organised. Most of the stakeholdershave met their own infrastructural needs especially along the Moi South Lake road and hence thecouncil may not have a basis for revenue collection. However, the stakeholder should support thecouncil’s projects.4. SOCIOECONOMIC IMPACTS OF THE PROJECT4.1 OverviewBased on the above socioeconomic conditions without the project, this chapter evaluates the possiblesocioeconomic changes resulting from an appraisal of the Olkaria IV (Domes) geothermal project. Allstakeholders interviewed felt strongly that the power (drilling) project is of national interest and shouldoverride all other concerns. Despite this, the power project should take into consideration the needs ofthe stakeholders. This is not the first project to be implemented by KenGen in the area. The companyhas so far implemented two geothermal projects Olkaria I (45 MW) and Olkaria II (70 MW). Duringthe implementation of these projects, the company met several social responsibilities, e.g.:• Provision of Orpower with an average 150 m 3 water per month for power station use;• Construction and maintenance of Mvuke primary and nursery schools which are open to allstakeholders;• Construction of Moi South Lake road and was recently the biggest contributor towards itsrepair;• Provision of pipe water to the Maasai community at the Kedong and Narasha, including otherad hoc but necessary services like transport and access to Mvuke primary school;• Extensive research on the land resources and characteristics;• Provision of decent housing carefully planned for its employees which has improved the areasgeneral outlook;• Donation of seedlings to the region and the rift valley province.All stakeholders agree that KenGen has immensely contributed towards social responsibility in thearea and has stayed in the lead in this regard.Since the three projects will be on the same geothermal field with a reasonable infrastructure anddevelopment, negative impact will be temporary and may not change the ambiance of the area in viewof other existing development. However, before the evaluation of the impacts, the stakeholders’ needsand fears were assessed and highlighted in Table 7. The socioeconomic assessment has been done inconsideration of these needs and fears. This analysis provided the framework of the stakeholders’expectations of KenGen. The anticipated socioeconomic impacts of Olkaria IV drilling project arediscussed below.