Tana River County
Kenya's longest river enables irrigation and delta ecosystem—now Sh40 billion dam expansion while saltwater intrudes 30km inland. By 2026: development protects or destroys.
Tana River exists because the river exists—Kenya's longest waterway creates a ribbon of life through otherwise arid terrain, enabling irrigation, pastoralism, and the rich wetland ecosystem of the Tana Delta. The Pokomo farmers cultivate along the banks while Orma and Wardei pastoralists graze surrounding rangelands, creating complementary but sometimes conflicting land uses.
The river has long attracted grand irrigation schemes. The Bura Irrigation and Settlement Project resettled 2,200 families from across Kenya in the 1980s. The Tana Delta Irrigation Project spans 31,000 hectares. Now the Sh40 billion Galana Kulalu Dam, signed in 2025 with China Communications Construction Company, promises to expand irrigation to 300,000 acres across Tana River and Kilifi counties. The October 2025 pilot harvest produced 30 bags of seed maize per acre.
Yet the delta faces existential threat. Climate change has reduced river flows; saltwater intrusion now extends 30 kilometers inland, devastating farmers who depend on freshwater. Villages like Ozi watch each harvest shrink as the ocean creeps into their fields. Upstream dams for irrigation and hydropower may further reduce flows reaching the delta.
The county exhibits classic riparian tension: upstream extraction versus downstream ecosystem needs, irrigation infrastructure versus wetland conservation, short-term agricultural gain versus long-term delta survival. By 2026, whether the Galana Kulalu development can proceed while protecting delta ecosystems—or whether agricultural expansion accelerates the delta's saline death—will define the county's future.