ACT News Update

Kenya 0206

Good response now will help communities endure drought

Geneva, February 15, 2006--In one area in the northwest corner of Kenya, livestock is taking priority over people for water. With little water to go around in drought-stricken parts of the country, pastoralists are making a last-ditch effort to keep their herds – their main assets – alive.

Near Kalobeyei, in the Kakuma division of Turkana district, a human chain of women lifts water 15 meters out of a well in the bed of a sand river for their livestock. The water is poured from buckets, and the goats drink, but this precious resource is quickly drying up.

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Kenya/Sudan program, a member of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, hopes to assist two communities in the area with their most urgent need at the moment: water. With support from ACT members around the world through an appeal (AFKE61), issued on February 2, which includes four other ACT members and their partners, LWF is seeking to rehabilitate nine boreholes and drill two new ones.

The work on the boreholes will ease the demand on the area’s existing water points and ensure the communities’ short-term survival in the current drought. Groups of villagers who use the water will be trained, and user associations will be established to manage the operation, repair and maintenance of the boreholes.

Bobby Waddell, head of LWF’s Kenya/Sudan program, returned from a three-day visit to the Kakuma division of Turkana district last week. He says the drought in the northern part of Turkana is not as bad as the situation was in 2000-2001. “However,” he notes, “a good response now will ensure that those communities in that area will be able to get through the drought. If the response is delayed and the rains don’t come, then it will get as bad as it was in 2000-2001.”

In other parts of northern and eastern Kenya, the drought is much more severe. The failure of the annual rains in October and November last year has triggered another food emergency in many areas and set in motion a series of crises from malnutrition to loss of livestock from forced sales or death. An estimated 2.5 million people are in need of emergency food aid.

Turkana district is home to some 500,000 people. Within the district, LWF’s Turkana project currently operates in the districts of Oropoi and Kakuma (adjacent to Kakuma Refugee Camp, a long-term project of LWF). The 290,000 people in these two districts, including 91,000 refugees, own a total of 120,000 head of livestock. The failure of the rains late last year has severely affected the livelihoods of Turkana residents. By far the biggest problem for these pastoralists is the lack of grazing pastures and the ever-increasing pressure on scarce water resources.

“Most of the traditional water sources have now dried up,” says Epem Emuria, a pastoralist in Kalobeyei, some 25 kilometers north of Kakuma Refugee Camp. “More and more of us are now dependent on one or two boreholes.” A hand pump that previously served 4,000 people is now providing water for almost 10,000 people. Livestock – goats, donkeys, cows and camels – have greatly multiplied, from 6,000 to 20,000. The situation has reached a critical stage with such high demand on the water source and the pump itself, which could break down because of overuse.

The situation is the same 45 kilometers west in Oropoi. In a normal year, the pasturelands are replenished and livestock are able to use other water points, including natural water pans across the plains. “But this year, all the water sources have already dried up,” says Apem Esajait, a mother of eight. “This has forced us to come to Oropoi center, where the only borehole is pumping 24 hours per day. We cannot afford to buy the fuel to keep it running.” As in Kalobeyei, fewer water points are struggling to serve more and more people and their livestock.

LWF and the other ACT members in Kenya are planning to address the immediate needs for water and food in the affected areas as well as some of the longer-term challenges that communities are facing in coping with drought conditions. To lessen the impact of droughts in the future, LWF plans to assist these communities in constructing a water pan and designing a second one in the Oropoi division. This should trigger a recovery following the next rains, which are expected in April.

LWF’s Waddell urges a timely intervention to avoid a repeat of the 2000-2001 drought, which saw many thousand heads of livestock perish across Turkana district.

The ACT members working under ACT appeal AFKE61 - Response to Kenya Drought and Famine – are: Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), Lutheran World Federation - Kenya/Sudan (LWF), Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Church World Service (CWS) and the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK).

Information for this news update provided by Bobby Waddell, representative of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF)/Department for World Service Kenya/Sudan Program. LWF is a member of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International.