Residents of five counties of Turkana, Marsabit, Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa, may soon stop experiencing destructive floods once a project being piloted by the Ministry of Water through the Water Resources Authority is fully implemented.
The Horn of Africa Ground Water for Resilience Programme, which was approved in July 2022, is expected to cost US $45 million and will benefit approximately 1.5 million people across the five counties.
The project, to be run for six years, further aims at ensuring the underground water reservoirs are well recharged and protected by building the capacities of communities on conservation measures.
Agatha Njuguna, the Project Implementation Unit Coordinator for the Water Resources Authority, in a briefing with the media in Garissa, said through the introduction of managed aquifers, they will be able to tap rain and flood water into a sand dam, and let it sink over time into the ground.
Managed aquifers are artificial aquifers that will be created to feed the natural underground water aquifers, which will be in the form of dams and will be well conserved and protected.
“We are trying to stop the water from flowing and intercept it and create a reservoir, allowing it to percolate into the ground. The aquifer is a very big resource in terms of storage, and when you create the infrastructure, you sort of put in conducive conditions for the water to sink instead of creating floods and causing havoc,” Njuguna said.
“If you do some ditches, furrows, spreading basins or sand dams, the water will be intercepted and stored even for later use after the rains stop, while recharging the underground reservoir which could be exploited to serve the communities,” she added.
Njuguna further said all stakeholders, will be brought on board, from the national and county governments, non-governmental organisations, and community leaders, whose input will be key in completing the project implementation.
The project will see more boreholes drilled with the older ones rehabilitated to create resilience in communities.
The stakeholders will also be able to receive adequate data on the water reservoirs, the salinity of water, possible water output, and where exactly would be more accurate to drill a borehole.
HoAGW4RP is a regional programme that involves Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, and IGAD through financing by the World Bank.
The joint implementation of the programme is to foster regional integration of the communities, living in the borderlands within the Horn of Africa.
