Rehabilitation Project
Located 20km SW of Lodwar, Kakiriing community lies in the semi arid lands of Turkhana District. Traditionally the people here are semi nomadic pastoralists, herding cattle, camels or goats in search of pasture and water.
The last ten years have seen consistent drought, such that it is now uncommon to see the Turkhana people with their animals, for they have either been slaughtered for food or died due to lack of food and water. In Kakirring, the 300 residents have taken on a more sedentry lifestyle, and live in small huts scattered sparsely across the sandy land.
It is hot here, through the year, and the people are not able to grow crops for lack of water and poor soils. The walk to the river is 3km, and takes a hour. Once there, the women and children scoop up the turbid water into jerry cans and walk home with them on their heads.
In Lodwar town, many international aid organisations have their offices, and do their best to support communities such as Kakiriing with food aid. Every 6 weeks each family is permitted an amount of maize meal, which they must live on until the next delivery. These people are on the edge of society, reliant on handouts to keep them alive.
Malnutrition is rife, especially amongst the children, as well as many water borne diseases including cholera, typhoid and dysentery.
The Water Project is committed to trying to make a difference in Kakiriing. We visited last year, and are determined to try and help. The people in Kakiriing don’t want to rely on handouts. They want to grow crops and become self sufficient.
We are planning to drill a borehole in Kakiriing this year, which will provide safe and clean water to the community, and to their neighbours. This water will be for drinking, cleaning and cooking. If the borehole has sufficient yield it will also be used for irrigation.
Sanitation and hygiene are also big issues in Kakiriing, as the sandy soil does not lend itself to the process of latrine construction, and people lack knowledge about hand washing and disease transmission. Latrines are liable to collapse, as they have done in the past during the voilent and short rains. As part of the project, The Water Project is committed to raising awareness about hygiene and sanitation through education, and is actively looking into ways of tackling the sanitation challenge.
To do this, we are working with SERV Ministries International, who have a presence in Lodwar as they run an orphanage in the town. As we drill for water in Kakiriing, we will also be providing the orphanage with a borehole.
In the long term, the staff at the orphanage, some of whom have a background in public health, will be ensuring that the Kakiriing community have the support they need when they need it.
