•Because of the rising temperatures, water has become scarce, and people spend more time trying to find it
•Kenya’s water resources are overstretched with the rise in demand and climate change, with rapid desertification in most places, mostly fuelled felling of trees
The human body is made up of approximately 70 per cent water. Approximately 70 per cent of the earth's surface is covered with water. No human, animal or plant can survive without water.
Water management is of great concern, yet rainwater goes to waste. Flora has become impoverished through overgrazing and deforestation. The depleted vegetation can no longer protect the soil from exposure to the sun, heavy rains cannot soak into the earth and washes fertile soil into rivers, lakes and valleys. All that is left is sand and stone.
Kenya’s water resources are overstretched with the rise in demand and climate change, with rapid desertification in most places, mostly fuelled felling of trees.
Aketch, 15, and her younger brother Ochibo had been patiently waiting in a long line with children and women since quarter past six, to fill their containers with water from the village borehole in Ogono, Homa Bay.
Aketch had a 20-litre jerrycan beside her. Ochibo stood with a 10-litre jerrycan. The sun had started to burn up the morning dew, and its rays beat down on the mabati roofs of the village houses and the waiting women and children. Because of the rising temperatures, water has become scarce, and people spend more time trying to find it.
While the siblings talked the line had been slowly moving forward and soon it was their turn. After filling their empty cans they walked off side by side towards home, not a stone's throw away from the village borehole. This is just one example of how climate change is making it harder for people to realise their right to water.
In Ogono and other dry places in Homa Bay, Siaya, Migori, Baringo and Turkana counties, climate change makes water sources less reliable, women and children like Aketch and Ochibo have to walk further every day. According to a recent World Bank study on climate change, children in Africa affected by drought are less likely to complete primary school.
The national and county governments should come up with reliable solutions to the water shortage problem. A plan that works such as digging ponds for rainwater, building concrete tanks to supply water in villages and urgent interventions to save our forests and water catchment areas from wanton destruction.
For Ochibo, Aketch and their classmates, this could mean improved access to water and sanitation facilities in their villages and at their schools, more time to study and better opportunities for their future.