EDITOR-The conservation of the Mau is not a sectional issue or a mere inter-communal conflict over land and water.

The Mau complex is arguably the most significant water tower in East Africa.

The Mara River which straddles several game parks and reserves across two states supports the most extensive ecosystem in the region, supplying water and other vital resources, offering a lifeline to thousands of pastoralists downstream and draining into Lake Victoria.

Mau is therefore as important to Kenya just as it is to Tanzania and Uganda.

The annual magnificent Wildebeest immigration is not the same without the Mau. Every player in the tourism industry knows that the regional circuit cannot be complete without the Masai Mara and its riverine ecosystem.

Ravage the Mau, and you will have killed pastoralism, tourism, irrigation, horticulture and hydropower generation, investment and infintum.

I witnessed firsthand the effects of destruction when I visited Makalia Water Falls in Lake Nakuru National Park in April. A lifeless dry ford has now replaced the resplendent fall I had seen in June 2004.

Further destruction of the Mau might provoke an inter-communal conflict that make the communal conflicts over livestock, and pasture in Northern Kenya look like child play.

The Mau must be protected at any cost for posterity. It does not matter who has to lose or win elections; all unwanted settlers must get out of the forest now. Only the fauna and flora are fit to live there.

Collins Wanderi, Nairobi, Kenya.