Understanding Drought in Southeast Kenya: Causes and Effects

Drought can affect any region, but in The Water Project’s service areas, nowhere feels its impact more deeply than Southeast Kenya.

In the past, this region followed a predictable rainy season cycle, with one rainy season March through May and another October through December. The steady tempo of this incoming water supply allowed farmers to plan their crops and communities to collect and store water efficiently.

But recent years have seen significant disruptions to this predictable pattern. The rains don’t always come, or they arrive in bursts too short and unpredictable to support agriculture.

Droughts — prolonged dry seasons that stretch beyond their usual cycles — are becoming more frequent and severe. In 2023, for instance, the Horn of Africa faced its worst drought in 70 years.

Cornelius Kyalo, Executive Director of The Water Project’s Southeast Kenya Program, shared his experience of how rainfall has impacted these counties. 

“30 – 40 years ago, the rainfall and dry seasons used to start and end at the right time. As a result of climate change and variability, the frequency of famines/drought cycles in the area [has increased] from 20 years, to 12 years, to two years, and currently almost to an annual phenomenon.

“Rainfall seasons have become erratic and unreliable with poorly distributed rainfall while the dry seasons have become longer, resulting [in] an increase in the frequency of droughts.”

And the data backs up what Cornelius is saying, as the World Bank Climate Risk Country Profile for Kenya explains: 

“Extreme rainfall events are occurring with greater frequency and intensity. Increased aridity and droughts have also been observed, with moderate drought events recorded on average every three to four years and major droughts every ten years. Since 2000, prolonged droughts have become more common.”

World Bank

How Drought Disrupts Life: Doreen’s Story

We’ve seen firsthand the devastating effects drought has on families, farms, and communities. But rather than list those effects, we’d like you to see them through Doreen’s eyes.

Doreen lives in the Syandu Community of Kitui County, described by Field Officer Alex Koech as “…mostly bare, rocky, and dusty due to the immense drought in the area, complemented by erratic rainfall. The residents use dusty murram (gravel) roads and cracked footpaths when going to fetch water.”

Every morning of her life, 25-year-old mother Doreen has woken knowing that water will dictate her entire day.

During the rainy seasons, Doreen collects rain from her roof or water from a nearby river. But now, the riverbed near her home has been dry for months. She has no choice but to walk several miles to the next available water source, hoping to find water at the bottom of a scoop hole. 

When she arrives, she’s never alone. As drought grips the region, more and more people crowd the scoop hole, waiting for their turn to collect its brown, salty water.

“Sometimes one has to wait for water to accumulate in the scoop hole, which takes longer during the drought period because many people depend on the scoop hole,” Doreen explains. “[The water] diminishes in quantity as the drought progresses.”

By the time she returns home, hours have passed. And, often, Doreen has to turn around and walk right back to the scoop hole. One container of water is just not enough to sustain a family and a farm for a day.

When Doreen finally finishes fetching water, her children are hungry. But without enough water for irrigation, her crops don’t grow well, leaving her without food and without income to buy more.

“Water is life,” Doreen says. “Without water, life is very difficult. It is difficult to take care of my children when there is no water for my crops, which makes it hard to feed them or [pay] school fees. Water is crucial for us because we need it for drinking, cooking, irrigating our crops, and also for our animals.”

Balancing all these water needs is a losing game. Every day, Doreen makes impossible decisions. Sometimes, that means sacrificing critical disease-preventing hygiene behaviors.

“Hygiene and sanitation have severely been affected because residents barely get enough water for cooking or drinking, let alone performing hygiene duties,” Alex said.

Waterborne diseases spread fast when people drink from unsafe sources. Doreen wonders if she and her children will be next, and what will happen to her farm, her children, and her finances if she gets sick.

This is what drought looks like for Doreen.

The Ripple Effects of Drought

Doreen’s story is just one example of how drought creates a chain reaction of hardship — one that impacts food security, health, education, and economic stability. Unlike regions with strong water infrastructure, where irrigation and reservoirs can help mitigate the effects of drought, most households in Southeast Kenya rely solely on rainfall. When that rain doesn’t come, the consequences are devastating.

Food Insecurity and Economic Hardship

• In a normal year, farmers in this area of Kenya produce most of their crops during the short rainy season from October to December. But when those rains fail, the fields remain barren, leaving families with nothing to eat.
• Drought hardens soil, preventing rain from soaking in when it finally arrives. Instead of replenishing crops, the water runs off, leaving the land as dry as before.
• When farmers grow less food, the price of their harvest increases, hurting families that can’t grow their own.

For Doreen, this means choosing between keeping a small amount of water for irrigation or using it for cooking and drinking. It means selling whatever she can immediately after harvest to cover urgent expenses like school fees — only to be left struggling for food a few months later.

Waterborne Diseases and Hygiene Risks

“The community members [in Syandu] have mostly complained of water-related infections like typhoid, amoeba, and diarrhea after drinking water from the current sources,” said Field Officer Alex Koech. “Hygiene-related infections like ringworms have also been reported.”

During drought, disease outbreaks spike because:

• Water sources shrink, causing contamination levels to increase as more people rely on fewer, unprotected water points.
• The first heavy rain after a prolonged drought often flushes accumulated contaminants into water sources, leading to a surge in typhoid and cholera cases.
• People are less able to keep their environments clean or wash their hands regularly, increasing their risk of infections.

Education and the Time Cost of Water

Although Doreen fetches water for her own household, research shows that in sub-Saharan Africa, children often bear the burden of collecting water for their families. 

As drought extends the time it takes to find water in this region, it’s easy to imagine the consequences for children’s education and futures.

• Girls are especially affected, as they are more likely to be responsible for fetching water for their families.
• Forty million children are having their education disrupted every year because of disasters exacerbated by climate change, and this number continues to increase.

When families have to choose between survival and education, opportunities for the next generation disappear.

How Sand Dams and Shallow Wells Change the Equation

The situation in Syandu may sound dire, but drought doesn’t have to mean devastation. With the right infrastructure, families can survive — and even thrive — despite unreliable rains.

In drought-prone areas where rivers dry up for months, sand dams are a game-changer. Unlike traditional dams that create large, open reservoirs, sand dams store water beneath layers of sand, protecting it from evaporation and contamination.

Sand dams are constructed from stone and cement in dry riverbeds where water flows during the rainy season. As rainwater rushes down the river, the dam slows the flow, trapping sand and silt while allowing excess water to pass over. Over time, layers of sand accumulate behind the dam, creating a natural underground reservoir, or artificial aquifer.

In its first rainy season, a sand dam captures up to 3% of the river’s flow while allowing excess water to pass over. Tthanks to new groundwater reserves, shallow wells constructed on the riverbank can then provide water even when the river has dried up.

This new water source not only replenishes the area’s water table, but it also promotes more rainfall by creating a welcoming environment for plants. 

A 2024 study on the effectiveness of sand dams in Zimbabwe showed incredible results.

“Sand dams significantly improved local water availability, most notably with a significant increase in the number of months per year that water could be collected from the dam site (mean = 6.5 months before, to mean = 10.9 months after construction). This increase is also reflected in drought years (mean = 5.8 months before, to mean = 9.6 months after construction).”

For Doreen and her neighbors, this means:

• No more digging in dry riverbeds. Water will be stored beneath the sand and accessible through a nearby shallow well.
• A year-round water supply. Even in peak drought, Syandu should have a hidden reservoir of safe water just below the surface.
• Less time fetching water. Instead of walking miles, Doreen and other residents will have a permanent, reliable water source close to home.

“The proposed sand dam and shallow well project will raise the water aquifers and offer the residents clean water to drink. There will be enough water to irrigate the crops, offering the self-help group members food security and a source of income when they sell their farm produce to other community members,” said Alex.

Why We Need to Act Now

The upcoming rainy season will not last forever. We need to act before April 30th to give community members time to construct the sand dam before the rainy season from March to May ends.

By supporting this effort, you can help break the cycle of water scarcity and build a future where Doreen never has to walk miles for water again.

Will you help make that future a reality?

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