At least 127,000 people will benefit from a Sh7 billion dam to be built at Kamachar in Busia’s Teso North subcounty.
Among benefits residents of the border subcounty will reap with the completion of the investment include access to clean piped water, electricity and access to water for irrigation.
The project will entail the building of a 40-metre high dam at Kamachar in Moding location.
The dam will have a reservoir with 31.6 million cubic metres capacity that will supply water to over 20,000 people and irrigate over 3,300 hectares of land.
The dam will also supply water with the capacity to irrigate 1,867 hectares of land on the Kenyan side of the border as well as 1,433 hectares in Uganda.
Besides, the investment will produce 1.75 megawatts of electricity which will be consumed locally. The electricity supply will help increase the number of people accessing power in the subcounty.
On Friday, the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program concluded preparatory studies for the Ang’ololo Water Resources Development Project to enable resource mobilisation for the scheme’s implementation.
The project is located on the trans-boundary Malaba river that is between Kenya and Uganda. The river falls within the Sio-Malaba Malakisi River Basin within the Nile basin.
The project’s environmental and social impact assessment consultant Prof Jacob Kibwage told the Star the project has received massive backing from the local community.
“It has reached a time when we can no longer continue depending on rain from January to December. Climate change is real and you can attest to that because of the irregular rain patterns we have today. The only water that is going to save the people of Teso North is water that is flowing in River Malaba,” he said.
“We are going to harvest water after building the dam and we shall have water coming to gardens from January to December. With the dam completed, there will be no time when residents will complain of water shortage.”
The Ang’ololo Water Resources Development Project, he said, will benefit at least 127,300 people from Moding, Osajai and Kamuriai locations in Busia county in Kenya and Tororo, Manafwa and Namisindwa districts in Uganda.
“This project is going to change the lives of our people for the better going forward because if we continue depending on rain we will not go far,” Kibwage said while at Kamuriai market.
“Women will not be walking far to look for water because the dam will supply piped water to homesteads and institutions around.”
Residents of Teso North have already lauded the investment, which they say will go a long way to alleviate poverty in the subcounty.
In addition to the dam, there are already proposals to construct markets in areas near the dam. The markets will provide avenues through which farm produce that will be harvested in irrigated farms will be sold.
Farmers who spoke to the Star proposed the construction of a fruit factory in the subcounty to process pineapples, oranges and mangoes. With water for irrigation available after the dam’s completion, many growers will embrace fruit production.
Kamuriai residents also urged the project’s consultant to consider schools within Kamuriai and Korisai locations to benefit from clean drinking water.
The institutions include Kamuriai primary and secondary schools, Osasame, Korisai and Kaukotoit primary schools as well as local market centres and health institutions.
“The people of Teso North will reap from the irrigation component to increase food production, which can be sold in local and international markets,” Kibwage said.
The dam is an initiative of the Kenyan and Ugandan governments and the African Development Bank.
Edited by Henry Makori
