Kiangwe villagers in Lamu County are spending sleepless nights in search of freshwater…

We find over ten people carrying torches surrounding a shallow water well in Kiangwe village, Basuba location, Lamu County at 11 am and the first question we ask is why they have torches at day time?. This comes out automatically in a place where insecurity has been rearing its ugly head for some time. The answer we get surprises us even as it makes all of us sad. These community members have spent their night next to the only well with some water hoping to get even five liters to go use back home. They tell us that they walked for over two hours to reach here in search of this elusive yet important resource.

It’s a group of men and women who after traveling for over two hours spent the night next to the water well and by 11 am, the water that is dripping in the well can’t even fill two cups and yet there are over ten 20 liter water containers waiting in line. The determination on their faces tells a whole story for this is a community facing all kinds of odds ranging from insecurity, drought, illiteracy and now this scarcity of water. They tell us that they had their last meal over 24 hours ago but can’t go back to the village without water for what will they use to prepare their food, what will they use to drink? How will they even take a bath?