bild

Kenya, Lake Naivasha area where most of Kenyas flower farms are located. Housing for workers at the Karuturi flower farm. A weekend religious service in the room of a farm worker...|| Each family has a bare room of 9 square meters, a tiny window, often ten people live in it and more. Mostly women with children because their is a kind of security not found in outside slums. And there is electrical power, after all, even a toilet houses with running water, a small hospital, a school. But people pay the equivalent of 15 euros a month, a third of the average wage. The flower industry facing accusations by the environmental groups and workers unions from unsafe working conditions to low wages to reckless environmental practices, as contributing massively to the depletion of the Lake Naivasha eco-system through their cultivation methods; horticulture still continues to be one of the fastest growing sub sectors in Kenya's export sector, growing at over 7% annually. The Kenya Flower Council, KFC, says the accusations are not un-warranted since a number of renegade-investors had declined to adhere to standardised protocols that was leading to the degradation of the lakes eco-system.. A struggle to protect wildlife, water and a rapidly expanding human population, who are desperate to feed their families, has increased tension in the area. (KEYSTONE/LAIF/Hans-Juergen Burkard)