***Mombasa on the Kenyan coast is developing as a major tourist destination. But tourism can bring as many problems as it solves, and a looming problem for Mombasa is being able to supply the quantities of fresh water demanded by the tourist industry. Gemini News Service reports that demands made by passenger liners in particular, are leaving some res-idents waterless, by Patrick Isaack and William Onyango.

PASSENGER and cruise ships calling at Mom basa are putting a heavy strain on the town's water resources. They are leaving the taps dry and some residents are having to trek long distances to fetch water.

The liner Europe left the port after a four-day call in March with 2.5 million litres of fresh water — the largest supply to any single vessel in the last two years. The liner Canberra siphoned two million litres and Queen Elizabeth II took 600,000 litres

Within a short time seven ships had taken enough water to meet the town's industrial and domestic needs for two weeks.

Over the same period 50 merchant vessels look an average of 300.000 litres each.

Mombasa is an increasingly popular stop for cruise ships and the water problem Is worrying the authorities who arc anxious to encourage the growth of Kenyan tourism.

Mombasa Ship Agents Associa tion says : "Mombasa risks los Ing its good image as a stop for these ships If the water prob lem is not properly addressed."

It has been an anxious time for the tourist industry In Kenya with business falling during the Gulf war and threatening to cripple the country's No 1 foreign ex change earner

In January only half the rooms In Nairobi's Hilton Hotel were occupied at the peak of the season. Game park lodges were half empty Tourism had

already suffered a setback last year because of the political tension that culminated In three days of riots In several cities and towns last July. A particular blow was transfer of the International Bar Association conference in September from Nairobi to New York.

Main aid donors such as the United States and Norway quarrelled with Kenya. Kenya and Norway broke diplomatic relations, over their disagreements, and American citizens were advised not to travel to Kenya because of the unsettled conditions.

In December foreign exchanges shortages forced the Kenyan government for the first time to impose a six-month restriction on foreign travel by public sector employees.

When the Gulf crisis broke, the UN embargo meant the loss of considerable tea exports to Iraq. Tea is Kenya's third biggest foreign exchange earner after tourism and cof fee.

The country's burgeoning population — at about 25 million and growing at 3.4 per cent a year — now has an unemployment rate of 16.2 per cent.

Most of the last year's 7,000 university graduates still have not found any work.

For the sixth most Indebted country In Africa, with an external debt of 85 69 billion for 1989. oil price rises caused by the Gulf crisis also took their toll, and the national carrier, Kenya Airways, had to cut its services and reduce staff

All African airlines are in difficulties. The major world carriers are gradually elbowing the less established ones out of business. Aircraft operated by many African airlines have outlived their usefulness. They are Inefficient in fuel use and affected by bans clamped on noisy aircraft in Europe.

They lack the money to buy sophisticated new planes, do not have the facilities to maintain them or the personnel to fly them. To forestall disaster

Tanzania. Zambia and Uganda have formed a new airline. African Air services, indepen dent of national carriers and with equal partnership shares.

Back in 1988 an African airline convention held in Cote d'Ivoire floated the possibility of all African airlines merging over eight years and finally producing a single airline for all Africa.

Kenya Airways is developing opportunities in the Scandinavian market. A new route links Nairobi. Mombasa, Copenhagen. Stockholm and Nairobi. Flights out of Copenhagen are usually full.

Kenyans arc confident that their tourist business is now picking up and travel operators believe they are recover ing from the bad start to the year.

Joshua Mwendwa. national chairman of the Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers, is optimistic. He says that since the Oulf war ended the phones have hardly stopped ringing.

— GEMINI NEWS