The government is working towards getting a lasting solution to the perennial river Nzoia floods, that have been affecting West Ugenya, area Deputy County Commissioner, Pamela Otieno has said.
Mrs. Otieno said that already, data on the affected area have been captured and sent to Nairobi to enable the bureaucrats work on a possible solution that will offer relief to the people who are annually displaced by the flood waters.
She was speaking at Lung’a Primary School in Sifuyo west sub location on Sunday while representing the Cabinet Secretary for Devolution, Eugene Wamalwa in distributing relief supplies to the displaced.
Among the projects that the government has put in place to curb the floods, said the DCC, was the Lower Nzoia irrigation project that will help ease pressure on the river by channeling some water to a canal to be used for irrigation.
“There were challenges with some land owners but this has been addressed and the project is ongoing” she said and called for public support to the initiatives aimed at addressing the floods.
She hailed the West Ugenya ward member of the county assembly, Andericus Oduor Odongo, for his efforts to help the displaced reconstruct collapsed houses and resume their lives.
Mrs. Otieno called on the residents of Sifuyo west to ensure they maintained law and order despite the challenges they are facing.
Addressing the occasion, the MCA said that an initiative he started has so far seen 38 houses constructed in Sifuyo west and called on national and county governments as well as other well-wishers to support it.
“As an MCA and one of the displaced, I volunteered to give 16 iron sheets, nails and pay for the ‘fundi” to each of our people whose homes collapsed but don’t have capacity to reconstruct,” said Oduor Odongo who is also the deputy speaker of the Siaya county assembly.
During the occasion, the national government donated 120 bags of maize, 120 bags of beans and 60 bags of rice to the 445 households that were affected in the area.
By Philip Onyango
