North Rift Valley SDA branch and Maranatha Volunteers International have drilled boreholes that have benefited at least 30,000 people and 60,000 livestock units across the County.
The Sh80 million project includes eight new boreholes, that have been drilled and six fully functional, while the other two in Mala and Koono in Turkwel Ward were saline and dry respectively. Boreholes with successful and fully equipped hand pumps, are Kakuma, Eliye, Kasuroi, Katilu, Turkwel, and Lokwii.
Director of SDA Churches in East and West Kenya Region, Sister Anuprova Rema is implementing a project involving survey, drilling, water quality tests, equipping, and designs. She added the partnership would later consider providing sponsorship programs to bright but needy students joining secondary schools and Universities.
Chief Officer for Water Services, David Maraka said the county government would now focus on building the capacity of water management committees to ensure sustainable use of water for all. He added that plans were already underway to restructure management of water supply, to Urban and Rural Water Companies.
Turkwell Ward MCA Steven Edukon, who is also the Leader of the Majority in the County Assembly, lauded the intervention by Maranatha Volunteers through the SDA Church and said they had demonstrated their love for the Turkana community by addressing a challenge of water access. Edukon promised to support discussions aimed at availing land for the construction of SDA Church regional headquarters in Turkana.
On his part, the Director of Water Services Paul Lotum, confirmed that the Water Department had deployed staff to the Sub-county level, to ensure timely response to operations and maintenance works.
By Peter Gitonga
