- The project was started five years ago with the objective of controlling perennial floods and boosting food production in the lower River Nzoia regions.
- The NIB said push and pull has delayed the compensation of residents.
Image: JOSIAH ODANGA
The short rains are back in Siaya county and, as usual, all the surface runoff will end up in the low-lying regions of Usonga and, finally, Lake Victoria.
Nzoia River cuts through Usonga. Every time there's a downpour the river bursts its banks and spills into neighbouring farms.
The World Bank-funded Sh5.3 billion Lower Nzoia Irrigation Development project launched in 2018 would have ended all this.
Residents are still waiting for the project.
“I am hopeful that the government will one day construct canals around and within our village to help us manage the floodwaters,” said Margaret Atieno.
She lives on the outskirts of Rwambwa trading centre in Usonga constituency.
The huts of Atieno's two sons are dilapidated; mud has fallen off the walls.
Atieno's hut has a fresh coat of mud so is liveable, but for how long is the question.
“It has only rained for about three days and already you can see pools of water. This is the life that we lead in this village and, honestly, I am tired of it,” she said.
Atieno, 56, said her grown-up children have deserted their home because the floods constantly disrupt their livelihoods.
News of the World Bank-funded project offered a glimmer of hope, but that too might soon be dashed.
The National Irrigation Board has said the World Bank has threatened to withdraw funding for the irrigation project if it is not completed in the next nine months.
The project was started five years ago with the objective of controlling perennial floods and boosting food production in the lower River Nzoia regions.
These include Ugunja, Alego Usonga and Ugenya subcounties of Siaya and Budalang’i in Busia.
It involves the construction of canals across the subcounties. The canals include main, secondary, tertiary, field drains and collector drains.
The canals are to cut across private land which would require compensation to those affected.
Whereas the construction is supported by the World Bank, the compensation is to be done by the national government through the National Lands Commission.
The NIB said push and pull has delayed the compensation of residents.
“Donors are fatigued and unless quick action is taken, the project will stall,” said deputy general manager Charles Muasya.
Muasya and NIB chief operations officer Joel Tanui spoke during the Usonga Rice Farmers Cooperative Society annual general meeting a week ago
Muasya urged Siaya leaders to hold talks with the community to resolve the stalemate.
Charles Bala, the chairperson of the Irrigation Water Users Association, told the Star on Sunday that they are not opposed to the project but there is an unresolved issue.
“After NLC in a Gazette notice of June 21, 2021, expressed their intention to acquire our parcels of land, the bone of contention remains over the tertiary canal which is seven metres wide,” he said.
Bala explained that most residents have small parcels of land and the seven-metre-wide canals would leave them landless.
“Information came that tertiary canals will not be paid for because the government does not have money,” he said.
Bala said the communities have provided land for the field and collector drains but they are not ready to let go of portions that are to be occupied by the tertiary canals.
He said the property owners who will be disrupted are ready to sign consent forms but only if the government is ready to pay them.
“Our only worry is that most of us have small pieces of land, and they are all that we have; but the government expects us to give way without telling us how we are going to settle elsewhere,” Bala said.
Bala said compensation for main and secondary canals has been amicably effected from Ugunja to Block 7 in Usonga Ward.
The main canals are 30 metres wide—10 metres for the canal itself and 10 meters on both sides for working space.
The secondary canals are 25 metres wide. Unlike Ugunja, Ugenya and Alego; Usonga ward has all the types of canals.
The project's intake is at Umala in Ugunja.
This means that most Usonga people will be affected as most of their land will be used for the construction of the many canals, hence, they need higher compensation.
Bala, however, said the National Irrigation Authority is intervening and now considering reducing the width of the contentious tertiary canals to just two-two-two metres.
Demonstrations on the newly proposed width are underway with the one for Usonga ward scheduled for Wednesday.
Siaya Governor James Orengo has urged stakeholders not to lose sight of the bigger picture.
“We must look for ways of compensating people for their land and property on time to save the project,” he said.
Orengo said the project will support commercial rice farming.
Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi called for a speedy resolution to the stalemate.
But Bala is concerned that some politicians have vested interests and are willing to push the affected landowners aside without a care for their well-being.
“Without compensation then the people risk losing their livelihoods yet some politicians have started to dismiss our concerns,” Bala said.
Image: JOSIAH ODANGA