UK Supermarkets accused of stealing water from Kenya

Today's Guardian reports that, according to the head of the water authority, the 12 largest flower firms which farm hundreds of hectares of flowers, fruit and vegetables in the region and supply supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and M&S and the European market, may be taking as much as 25% of water normally available to more than 100,000 small farmers.

"The big flower farms should be taking water only [during] the floods, but they are taking it from high up the mountains whenever they need it. They are all stealing water. We follow the river at night and see them do it," said Severino Maitima, head of the recently set up, government-appointed Ewaso [river] Ngiro water authority, which manages all the water in the region.

"They steal it between 10pm and 2am. We do not know exactly how much they are taking, but it is a lot of water. They take it to replenish their stores when they think we sleep," he said.

Source: Guardian Online