Makueni County is building 84 earth dams to harvest rain water for irrigation and domestic use in a bid to end the perennial water shortage and hunger in the county.
Construction of more than 50 of the water reservoirs is complete and the rest are expected to be done soon. The county is also sinking boreholes to mitigate vagaries of incessant droughts and help residents trekking kilometers in search of water.
Some of the dams are already supporting irrigation. The county is also building water treatment plants to supply residents with treated water.
Governor Kivutha Kibwana on Thursday reiterated the government’s commitment to eradicate poverty, reliance on relief food and ensure delivery of health services.
The projects are some of the development initiatives projected in the county’s development blueprint.
“As a government, we are committed to deliver our people from extreme hunger, poverty, disease and unemployment,” Kibwana said.
The county’s water and irrigation department is implementing the projects in various sub-counties in compliance with the county’s integrated development plans.
The devolved government has also built a Sh50 million fruit processing plant in Kalamba, Makueni sub-county to process locally processed fruits to ensure residents benefit from value adding before selling their farm produces.
Farmers in the county sell their harvests, mostly tropical fruits unprocessed, and denying them profits from industrial processing.
The governor said the county is still reeling from the slow growth occasioned by wrangles between the executive and the assembly.
“The county has embraced public participation framework that assures the exercise of power and sovereignty of the people and popular representation in the structures from the village to the county level that interface continuously with government process and programs,” Kibwana said.
“This programme benefits from the civic education the county government has implemented.”
Kibwana’s government is building a Sh50 million Vocational Training Centre for people living with disability.
Makueni has hired 900 early childhood education teachers and availed necessary equipment and learning materials.
The county is also paying the title deeds processing fee for land owners with parcels of lands not exceeding two acres and 40, 000 deeds have been processed and handed to the residents.