Residents' decade-long thirst ends as Kangu Kangu water project finally flows

Some of the storage water tanks at Kangu Kangu water treatment plant. [Philip Muasya, Standard]

For years, Mutomo town and its environs have lived under the shadow of perennial thirst. Women and children would wake before dawn, trekking kilometres in search of water from distant seasonal rivers and other unreliable sources.

Those who could afford it would buy the commodity from water merchants, who often hiked the prices to between Sh20–Sh50 per 20-litre jerrican, a price too high for ordinary people.