Hundreds of residents of Rambira location in Karachuonyo constituency, Homa Bay county, are set to benefit from a Sh164 million irrigation project.
The Principal Secretary for the State Department for Irrigation, Ephantus Kimotho, said the project is expected to be completed by June this year.
He said the project, which has two dams, has a capacity of 150 million litres of water.
Speaking on Friday during a tour of the project’s Okundi dam, the PS said they were going to build the capacity of the local community to maximise the utilisation of the water abstracted from the dams.
He said the project would provide clean water for over 20,000 livestock and irrigate over 100 acres of farmland throughout the year.
He encouraged farmers to form cooperatives to assist them with market linkages so that the expected increased agricultural output transforms the local economy as envisaged in the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
“This is a climate-resilient project which will impound water which would otherwise cause floods downstream and be discharged to Lake Victoria,” he noted.
Kimotho said that the project would supply water for drip irrigation to ensure every drop counts, adding that an acre under irrigation could generate up to half a million shillings per year for a farmer.
Area MP Adipo Okuome told locals to support and own the project to uplift their living standards.
He told the project contractor to ensure those working on the project were paid well and on time.
Okuome said that the project was behind schedule and urged the contractor to speed up the works.
Local farmers expressed concerns that baboons and monkeys were destroying their produce and urged the Kenya Wildlife Service to intervene and cage the animals for relocation, as well as compensate the affected farmers.
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