By Okong’o Oduya
Busia County, Kenya: Lake Victoria North Water Works Development Agency (LVNWWDA)recently launched a mobile water purifying machine at Marenga Beach in Budalangi to help purify and pump water to those living in the camps. Approximately 40,000 people have been displaced following floods that have hit most parts of Budalangi in Busia County.
The displaced and affected persons are currently camping at various places in the region including churches and learning institutions.
As results of this it has emerged that majority of those living in camps do not access clean water and other amenities such as toilets.
To find a solution on that Busia County Government has tried to cushion the victims by supplying clean water in water bowers which seems not to be the lasting solution.
According to Dr. Julius Kones, the chairman, LVNWWDA the project will play a big role in making sure that those living in the camps access clean drinking water.
He says the problem is worsening daily since many people are forced to move from the affected areas to high placed.
“Last week we were able to supply two tanks at the camps but situation is worsening daily, when our team visited the camps last week there were hardly 20 camps but there are more that 70 camps today. That means a crisis is looming particularly related to sanitation, food and other health related issues,” he said.
He noted that the agency will go further and ask the ministry to release money to help them construct toilet in the camps to avoid the possibilities of waterborne diseases.
He further said the rains and water levels that is being witnessed currently the region has made it hard to continue depending on the dykes along river Nzoia to prevent the floods, but will have to look for other alternative including putting up dams upstream to minimize the impact of such rains in future.
“Floods have become a menace in the region.We thought we somehow controlled it in Budalangi when we constructed the dykes and for a while, we thought we had managed, but for this year, the rains and the water levels has become so high and I think going forward we must look for other ways of controlling these floods not just only using the dykes, but identifying ways of putting up dams upstream so that we minimize the impact whenever we have such rains again.” He explained.
Engineer Boniface Mulama, the CEO, LVNWWDA said Busia County, being part of the areas they operate in they will continue giving their support in terms of water and sanitation.
He said the current situation may not end this soon, it is something that will be with us for quite some time and because it is extra ordinary, the support we are going to give requires extra ordinary support.
“We want to ensure that with the little resources we have at least each camp to have a tank for storage, then we can use our water bowers to make sure that we refill them continuously,” he said.
However he raised fear that since all camps are in learning institutions, with few sanitation facilities is going to be an issue if not handled on time.
“In our budget, we had projected for around 30 camps but they have increased to almost 63 camps, what we will do is to update our reports so that we know how we can help them to get safe water and sanitation facilities, beyond the floods.
After the floods the people will go home, students will come to utilize these facilities; they will find the sanitation situation in bad condition, so we need to put in measures in place to help the institutions do sanitation facilities for their learners when they come back.” He noted.
On dam construction upstream Mulama noted that because of politics they were unable to put up dams on river Nzoia to control the flow of water downstream.
“Earlier on the World Bank was interested in the project but there was a lot of politics about resettlement. People were not willing to relocate to the identified site in Tongaren, Lugari and Webuye, so it did not pick up, but we are going to escalate it further to ensure that we get the attention of the development partners to support the project to kick off,” he noted.
He said he already done a concept paper for Yala River in Nandi hills to do Soi-Koru dam to control the flow on Yala River downstream.
As an agency, Mulama said they have already done a feasibility study on port Victoria Sisenye water supply and they are waiting for funds to help them do a project that will facilitate availability of clean water.
He noted that they have already spent 18 million in carrying out feasibility study but need more 1.2 Billion shillings complete the project.
This come days after the chairman council of governors Wycliffe Oparanya called upon western leaders to come together and find a way on how to control the floods that has hit the region.
Oparanya said that, political leaders in Webuye, Tongaren and Lugare need to sensitize their people on importance of constructing the dam upstream on river Nzoia adding that this will not only reduce the speed of water flow but the dams will help in improving agriculture through irrigation.
