State will improve water supply in dry counties, says NDMA boss

Residents of Modogashe town selling and buying animals on market day. Lack of water is the biggest problem in most ASAL counties.

The National Drought Management Authority is working on improving water supply in the arid and semi-arid counties, CEO Hared Adan has said.

The strategies are meant to enhance water availability in the counties that are typically dry due scarce and unreliable rainfall.

The CEO said water remains the single biggest challenge facing the counties and once it is sorted sorted, most of the problems residents of the 23 counties face will have been solved.

“Water remains the single most critical challenge in ASAL counties, underpinning nearly all aspects of life—health, education, economy, and security. If we have water we will have solved almost 90 per cent of the problems of our community. And that is where our focus is as government,” he said.

The situation gets worse during droughts that put the lives of people and livestock at risk. In some instances, conflicts have arisen due to scramble of the little available water.

Even though both the national government through its state agencies and county governments have been working hard to address the challenge through digging of boreholes and water pans,  the challenge still persists.

Adan said that the agency was aware of these facts and was seeking to have permanent solutions to the water problem.

He said the agency was focused on the resilience building of the communities to be able to withstand drought shocks.

“As an authority, we are putting a lot of effort on water infrastructure and based on the budget support from the National Treasury we are going to put a number of infrastructures in the arid and semi-arid counties that will support our communities to withstand drought shocks,” he said.

Haret spoke in Modogashe town, Lagdera subcounty, when he led a food destruction exercise to the elderly men and women aged 65 yeas and above  and a donation of umbrellas to small-scale traders in the area courtesy of a partnership between the agency and International Relief for Africa, an NGO.

“We have pasture in the 23 counties. We don’t have any water-stressed county at the moment and we expect this to last for the next two months when we expect the August/September rains,” he said.

Dr Allan Mugambi from International Relief for Africa said that the essence of the programme was to assist elderly men and women in the society who are in often neglected.

“As an organisation I want to give an assuarance that we will continue partnering with NDMA and other state agencies to support the very vulnerable in society,” he said.

Koome Kirago a director at NDMA, while thanking the partners for extending support to vulnerable community members said residents of the area require  a lot of support because of the harsh weather conditions.

“This is a very vulnerable age group that requires our support. This is one age group that is a bit neglected and they require that kind of support especially in the ASAL areas,” he said.

 He called on other donors and  partners to come on board and offer assistance to the vulnerable in society, saying that the number of those in need of assistance was big.

“We sincerely thank our generous donors for their unwavering support in providing vital food aid to the most vulnerable in this part of the country. We want to humbly call on other donors and partners to also humbly come and support this worthy cause because our need for food in this country is big,” Kirago said.