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Acute water scarcity Mandera forces villagers to migrate to Somalia and Ethiopia

 People in Bambo village have survived on this dam for decades. It has dried up due to the prolonged drought in Lafey constituency. [Ibrahim Adan Ali, Standard]

Locals in Lafey constituency, Mandera County, are staring at death and starvation after the only reliable water points dried up.

Residents from Waranqara ward are now forced to trek for kilometres as far as across the border in Ethiopia in search of water to quench their thirst and fetch some domestic use.

They fear the worst should the March-April rains fail. This is after two boreholes and two water pans dried up due to the prolonged drought spelling doom for Bambo and Kheira villages, which have the highest number of pastoralists.

 A child in Gari Hills town, Lafey constituency in Mandera County helps fetch water. [Ibrahim Adan Ali, Standard]

"Even after reaching the borehole while traversing valleys and hills throughout the night, we have to queue for hours waiting to collect the precious commodity. By the time I get back home, it is already 8 in the morning and my daughter is anxious about getting late for school," complained Halima Hassan, a mother of two.

According to local MCA Abdullahi Ibrahim, over 15,000 people have crossed over the borders to Somalia and Ethiopia in search of water and pasture for their livestock.

"Out of 15,000 households, some of the parents who moved to Somalia and Ethiopia have shifted from Waranqara with their children rendering them out of class," disclosed Ibrahim.

 The biggest dam in Waranqara ward that served hundreds of residents over the years. [Ibrahim Adan Ali, Standard]

The MCA is worried that the drought situation has reached an alarming level.

"Most wells and dams have dried up; close to 25,000 people in my area are at risk of starvation. The situation will be worse if it won't rain in the coming weeks," he says.

According to Gabow Ahmed an elder in Gari Hills town, women, children and the elderly are the most affected.

"We always witness our women trekking over long distances with babies on their backs in search of water," said Ahmed.

For decades, women and girls in Waranqara, a sweltering, water-scarce hamlet, have been trekking daily for long distances along insecure routes in search of the commodity. On a good day, they get water from bowsers but at an exorbitant price of Sh15,000.

Lack of access to safe and affordable water is among the major constraints to improving the livelihoods of pastoral communities in Mandera county. The nearest accessible water point from Waranqara is about 47 kilometres away in Rhamo.

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