Over 130,000 residents of Isiolo County will require relief food for the next four months, a National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) report has revealed.
Addressing County Steering group meeting co-chaired by Assistant County Commissioner (ACC) Samuel Gichohi, NDMA County Coordinator Lordman Lekalkuli, said that four wards are severely affected by drought, where residents from three of the affected areas solely depend on farming activities along Ewaso Nyiro River, which has since dried up downstream.
Lekalkuli said Sericho, Charri and Cherab wards that directly rely on Ewaso Nyiro River for irrigation and watering their livestock, will have to be supplied with relief food and be enlisted on cash transfer programme.
He said a survey carried out by his office has identified that 68,000 households in the county are in dire need of relief food supply, adding that only 21,000 households are already on Cash Transfer Program.
The coordinator said the government and other development partners had pumped over Sh78 million to pipe water from Merti to Korbesa covering 26 kilometres, where over 9,000 people, four trading centres and thousands of livestock and wildlife have benefitted.
He added that water trucking would still continue in Modogashe and Badana in Isiolo South constituency and some parts of the vast Oldonyiro Ward.
The NDMA Coordinator said that in a recent nutrition survey, malnutrition had shot up from 15.2 to 17.8 percent due to drought and insecurity caused by bandits, where dairy animals were moved to safer places, thus affecting local milk supply.
At the same time, Lekalkuli noted that cases of human/ wildlife conflict were on the increase since wild animals had been straying to the farming areas causing locals sleepless nights.
By Abduba Mamo
