IN most lowland parts of Marsabit district water is usually a rare resource—a colourless gold to the many communities living in this vast but dry district of northern Kenya.
About 80 per cent of the population are pastoralists who rely mostly on livestock for their livelihoods. Up to 10 per cent of the population practise subsistence agriculture and live mainly around Mt Marsabit, Gadamoji and Mt Kulal, which receive a comparatively high rainfall.
Marsabit district is located in the driest parts of the country and receives a low rainfall with fairly high temperatures. The second largest in Kenya after Turkana, Marsabit has only two gazetted forest on Mt Marsabit and Mt Kulal, which are the only tourist attractions.
Most of the pastoralists are concentrated in the lowlands where semi-permanent manyattas and chekkos, Gabra/Rendille local name for kraal/settlement) are found around watering points, market centres or along roads with predominantly rugged landscape whose terrain is hostile both to farming and livestock.
During the prolonged drought and el Nino phenomenon before then, water sources had become inadequate due to a mechanical breakdown caused by overuse of the existing boreholes serving the pastoralists. There was also silting in boreholes causing water shortages.
Letaranya Letapo, a Samburu herdsman, says the drought was a big blow to them, forcing many of the residents to drive their livestock over 70km to get the nearest water point, which would take them a whole day.
But the nomads now have all to smile about because they can access the nearest natural resource easily without covering several kilometres and wasting a lot of time. They have benefited from a water project initiated by the Intermediate Technology Development Group –Eastern Africa (ITDG-EA).
ITDG-EA, an international non-governmental organisation working with pastoralists in the district’s lowlands, has implemented specific water activities aimed at rehabilitating boreholes, shallow wells, springs and pans in its drought-intervention project in partnership with the Lutheran World Relief. It is funded by the Office of Foreign Disasters Assistance (OFDA) and Cordaid.
According to Irene Njumbi, the ITDG-EA pastoralists project manager, the water relief intervention in 1999-2001 was meant to safeguard pastoral livelihoods through improving access to water by humans and livestock in the lowlands of the district’s five divisions inhabited by the Samburu, Rendille, Borana and Gabra pastoral communities.
Research has revealed that, compared to other development projects initiated in most arid and semi-arid lands (Asal), especially the nomadic districts, water projects have had support from the pastoral communities.
Some of them even sell livestock to maintain water resources, which is rare in other development issues such as the construction of schools or health facilities.
“We support the initiatives because livestock are our source of livelihood and they need to access water in order to survive and provide us with meat and milk. We need to ensure they get water and pasture even if it’s an issue of selling some to maintain the existing water points in future,”says Nyangis Lolokiri, a Samburu herdsman.
The prolonged drought results in crisis such as diseases and conflict arising from sharing the scarce natural resources. It has forced many pastoralists to harness and properly manage existing resources in order to evade such cases in their areas by working with development agencies.
Simon Munyao, the Marsabit district ITDG-EA field co-ordinator, says the community has been helpful and contributed almost 40 per cent in the provision of labour during the construction of shallow wells and the desilting of pans and dams, which exceeded the donors’ expectation.
The community involvement has enabled pastoralists to improve their water supplies where a total of 120 shallow wells, 11 boreholes, seven pans and four water pumps have been rehabilitated and protected.
The agency has also built six water tanks some with a capacity of 80,000 litres each.
Galmagar Lesakalpo, a Rendille herdsman, says the protection of shallow wells through constructing troughs has reduced long watering time. It has checked environmental degradation where traditional wooden troughs were used and livestock were always reported drowned in the wells.
Despite their efforts in the water project, the communities have experienced poor management of water resources. ITDG-EA conducted capacity-building training courses and exposure visits outside the district for the water users’ association to enhance their skills in the maintaining the water supply equipment.
The organisation conducted an exchange visit to Wajir for 12 members of the water users groups.The pastoralists visited an organised water users group called the Wajir Pastoral Association. Here there are 12 registered water users’ associations with members drawn from each borehole where in each six training sessions conducted, over 120 pastoralists have been trained as water equipment managers and pump operators.
Isako Orto, the chairman of the Marsabit District Umbrella Water Users’Association, says that “after coming back from Wajir district we formed an organised association to act as an overall body in the maintenance of water services in the community.
ITDG-EA donated six water pumps to three specific water users associations and three generators to the district umbrella body. These are used by water users associations as back-ups or in case of emergency.
“We hire out generators to needy boreholes at a fee to ensure continued water supply in various parts of the district because pastoralists have suffered alot during breakage’s for the past years,”says Orto.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), through the water development office, donated fast-moving spare parts and fuel to the Marsabit district umbrella water users association for one year. It was at two consultative meetings with the water users’ associations organised by ITDG-EA that the members raised issues on the unavailability of spare parts and the expenses to acquire them from outside the district.
Dickson Maitho, the district water planning and design officer, says that increasing water points in areas that lack them has lessened natural conflict among the different community users. This has resulted in conflict management in the sharing of resources and enhanced peace in the district.
ITDG-EA, in collaboration with the district water department in the capacity-building initiative, has increased knowledge and skills on water management. This potential has contributed to better community management and sustainability of local resources, hence improved livelihoods.
Access to water has led to sustained livestock productions, which has saved over 500,000 animals from diseases such as trypanosomiasis and foot-and-mouth, making them less vulnerable to the negative impacts of drought.
The water relief has acted as a drought-preparedness mechanism where communities have adopted early warning system to handle such cases during . There are organised shallow wells committees, which forecast weather conditions among the Gabra, Samburu, Rendille and Borana to avoid disasters and livestock epidemic outbreaks.
According to Ali Mohammed, the ITDG-EA Marsabit district water project technician, it has contributed to the opening up of underutilised rangelands, reducing pressure on the permanent water points and consequently enhancing environmental conservation efforts in the district.
The national water, environmental and sanitation sector co-ordination is under the auspices of the country’s food security, which is chaired by the arid lands resource management project.
ITDG-EA, being a member, was given the responsibility to mobilise other agencies in the district.