Our Footprint
Mara Plains is located on the Olare Orok Conservancy, one of the northern conservancies which act as a buffer zone to the Mara reserve in south western Kenya. The OOC is run and based on a low impact but high yield model of conservation and what makes it special is that it is the local Masai people who benefit from having the wildlife on their land.
Mara Plains is one of a few camps in the Mara that have been constructed without any cement so making it possible for the entire camp to be removed leaving no trace. All the existing structures in the camp are on raised decks limiting covered surface area. The rooms all have only three ‘feet’, each resting on a flat river stone lying on the surface.
As any camp should, Mara Plains tries to minimize any impact it may have on the surrounding ecosystem so as to be as natural and eco- friendly as possible.
WATER
Water for the camp is drawn from a hand dug well located next to the Ntiakitiak River. This water is pumped by solar pump to header tanks so as to cut out any burning of fuels. The water from the header tanks then passes through a triple filter system with UV treatment before heading to the camp.
At present hot water is heated in eco boosters. Due to the delicacy of the areas ecosystem the conservancy does not allow the collection of any form of fuels from the area. For this reason Mara Plains runs its eco-heaters on sustainable fire wood brought in every couple of months from exotic plantations outside the region. We hope that by October we all hot water will be solar heated.
ELECTRICITY
The Electricity in the camp is currently run on 24 deep cycle batteries operating through a duel inverter system. The batteries are charged by a 15.5 KVA generator which is run only four hours a day and is located inside a room soundproofed with mud walls and recycled egg trays. From October 2011 we hope to have the camp power running 100% on solar cutting down fuel consumption as well as our already minimal noise pollution.
WASTES
Mara Plains tries to cut down as much as possible on our waste. All drinking water is bottled and is brought to the camp in 20L recyclable containers. When guests arrive they are given their own personal water bottle for the duration of their stay. These bottles are filled as need-be and re-used meaning other than the plastics collected by guides on drives the camp has very little plastic waste. The small amounts collected at Mara Plains as sent to Nairobi for re-cycling.
All metals, cans, tins etc are collected and stored in the camp before being sent to recycling plants in Nairobi.
All glass is also collected and sent to Nairobi for recycling.
All combustibles are incinerated on site.
Organic waste is put into a bio pit where it decomposes. This pit is not accessible to the wildlife ensuring there is no dependence being caused by the presence of the camp.
GREY WATER
All grey water from the kitchen passes through a large grease trap cleaned weekly. It then passes into a sedimenting pit before continuing into a soak away pit.
All linen is washed ‘off-site’ at a location outside the conservancy. This ensures that we only use minimal amount of detergents on guest clothing. All water used for the ‘in-camp hand washed laundry’ passes through a constructed natural filter to remove soaps and detergents before returning back into the ground.
BLACK WATER
Currently the camp operates using septic treatment systems for its black water. In the near future we hope to install new existing technology systems which cleans black water into a state fit to be recycled around the camp grounds etc.
