A Baringo MP yesterday said residents will contract waterborne diseases if they don’t get clean water soon.
Baringo Central MP Joshua Kandie said 70 per cent of the county is arid and semi-arid and many residents are suffering from lack of water.
“Something ought to be done immediately to arrest the situation before a deadly outbreak of waterborne diseases is announced,” he said.
The worst-hit areas are Baringo North, Tiaty and Baringo South, inhabited by the Tugen, Pokot and Ilchamus pastoral communities, respectively.
“Worst of all is that my colleague who are leaders from the above affected areas have kept silent and yet their residents continue suffering,” Kandie said.
The legislator urged Governor Stanley Kiptis to supply water using county emergency funds.
He spoke to the media after opening a borehole at Tandui Primary School in his constituency. The school is where former President Moi started his education in 1935. It had been experiencing water problems until the Star highlighted the shortage in November 2017.
“Apart from serving the school, the borehole water will also reach more than 10,000 residents from the neighbouring Kiptagich, Tandui and Sacho villages,” Kandie said.
Plans are underway to sink more boreholes in Kapkelelwa, Kapsogo, Kabasis and Salawa.
food aid
The MP also said there is need to provide starving residents, especially schoolchildren, with relief food supplements. He said the drought may worsen if the rains fail until April.
On Saturday, the Star published a story of schoolchildren from AIC Lodengo Primary School in Tiaty, drinking muddy water fetched from a drying water pan.
School head teacher Joshua Kangogo said they plan to close the school for lack of water and fear of waterborne diseases.
However, Baringo National Drought Management Authority officer Bethuel Wafula said the situation has not worsened. He said the department is collecting data to present to the national government.
Wafula accused the county government of failing to address the water problem in time. “Water is a devolved function and the national government just chips in to supplement [efforts made by counties],” Wafula said on Sunday
The officer said he has directed that one water bowser be used to supply water to the worst-hit areas, especially the schools. Last week, Governor Kiptis pledged to dispatch water bowsers and allocate funds to repair the broken boreholes and dams.