Dry spell threatens water supply, spells doom for homes, schools in Kenya

A resident of Kobondo Village in Karachuonyo, Homa Bay County draws contaminated water from a dam for domestic use. Health officers have attributed the use of dirty water for the outbreak of Cholera in the region. [PHOTO: TITUS MUNALA/STANDARD]

KISUMU: Emily Akinyi, 27, wakes up at 4am daily to begin a desperate search for water, in the company of her eight-year-old daughter, Lewiski Achieng.

And in more than two hours of non-stop sojourn, she covers five kilometres to Kobondo dam, a water point that has in recent days become the well of life for residents of West Karachuonyo in Homa Bay County.

Despite the water having turned green as a result of algae growth, residents and their livestock scramble for a share of the precious commodity to stay alive. “I live more than five kilometres from this water point so I am forced to wake up early before it gets too hot to walk,” she says.

By 8am, the receding Kobondo dam, serving about 12,000 people, is a beehive of activity; the dull faces of those who have gathered to fetch water revealing the depth of pain and suffering caused by prolonged drought.

Elderly women travel long distances to draw water. Elderly men tag along, with their livestock. School children too are not left behind.

Activity around the dam is a case study on drought, as people and animals compete for access to water engulfed in a cloud of dust; their feet and hoofs buried in loose soil.

Men at the dam have more tasks than just draw water – they have to pull out cattle stuck in the mud as well as help women and children carrying water to onto safer grounds.

“We are forced to report to school late, sometimes one hour behind schedule, because we have to help our parents fetch water in the morning. Sometimes we arrive in school too exhausted to learn,” says Mildred Akinyi, a student at Kandiege Secondary School.

Learning in most neighbouring schools has become difficult.

Gendia High School principal John Oluoch says the school spends Sh10,000 a day on water.

“A lorry from Lake Victoria South Water Services Board supplies us with 10,000 litres of water every day, but that is not enough. Sometimes we release students to walk to the lake (Victoria) to take a bath and wash their uniforms although under rare occasions because of long distance and the risks they are exposed to when out of the school compound,” he says.

AFFECTED SCHOOLS

The distance between the school and the lake is about five kilometres.

Other neighbouring schools faced with a similar situation include Kandiege, Oriwo and Siburi secondary schools.

Homa Bay County Director of Education Stephen Barongo says: “Schools use a lot of water and it is natural that life is never easy when the commodity is scarce. But the school managements have devised strategies to survive in the face of the disaster to ensure learning is not paralysed,” he says.

The water shortage, according to residents, has made young girls vulnerable, as they are forced to stay at the water point sometimes up to 10pm, exposing them to risks of sexual assault.

Before Kobondo dam was established in 2012, residents used to walk longer distances to either river Oluch Kibuon at the border of Karachuonyo and Rangwe constituencies or Lake Victoria, both of which are more than 10 kilometres from where the dam is situated. Some residents relied on ponds that have since dried up. The dam, which is the brainchild of Bishop Haggai Nyang’ of the Anglican Church of Kenya, Homa Bay Diocese, consumed Sh7 million for its establishment.

WATER PROJECT

Nyang’, 79, says he was touched by the struggle of the residents and mobilised the amount to put up the water project.

“It is unfortunate that the local leadership has not revamped this initiative and even opened up new dams to curb water crises in the area,” he says. “The situation was terrible before this dam was dug and I thought the initiative would set the pace for our leaders to settle the perennial water shortage that visits our people.”

The suffering in the area mirrors what a cross-section of Nyanza residents are going through to get water despite the region being home to Lake Victoria, the second largest fresh-water lake in the world.

An acute shortage of water has hit various parts of the region following a long dry spell. Residents of Uyoma and Asembo in Siaya County have for the past two months been forced to deal with a similar shortage after the main water reservoir at Asembo Bay broke down.

For many in the area, bathing and watering livestock are becoming unaffordable luxuries as the little water available is used almost exclusively for cooking.

“Water is only available in far off places and we are forced to rely on donkeys to cover the distance. Those of us who do not have the means are forced to buy the commodity from vendors who are overcharging us,” says Pamela Achieng, a resident.

Barding High School principal Victor Makanda says they get water from River Yala, more than eight kilometres away.

“We use our school van which we at times supplement with donkeys. Every day at 8.30 pm, the students (960 in total) line up for a cup of drinking water that has been brought from the river, and this sometimes interferes with their night studies,” Mr Makanda says. Kennedy Otieno, a water vendor from Kadel, in Karachuonyo told The Standard on Sunday that he rides more than 20 kilometres from Kobondo dam to supply residents with water.

“We charge between Sh30 to Sh50 per 20-litre container of water depending on the distance covered. The demand is so high that in most cases, I work up to very late in the night,” Otieno says.

Asumbi Girls High School principal Anne Josephine Apiyo says: “Water is a very big challenge to us. We rely on a borehole which is also drying up. Fetching water for more than 1,000 students is not an easy task.”

Water shortage is also being experienced in parts of Kisumu County such as Awasi and Kano plains that are synonymous with floods during rainy seasons.

Following the prolonged drought in the area, there is a looming famine as most of these areas rely on rain-fed agriculture. “Unfortunate reports of sex for water have emerged in Awasi area. Top secondary schools in Kisumu County such as Nyabondo, Nyakach Girls and Thur-Dibuoro go without water,” says Patricia Atieno, a social worker involved in women empowerment initiatives in the area.

Towards the end of last year, it was reported that a 30-year-old mother was raped at 5am on her way to fetch water at Awasi town by a group of armed men.