Kenya: Remote desert community celebrate their first well

Screenshot: turning on the taps

Nayenakabaran village sits five kilometres from the shores of Lake Turkana in northwest Kenya. Plenty of water, but none of it drinkable. As a result, women and girls have had to walk up to 10km daily in search of water for many years. Various attempts have been made to drill boreholes in the area, but they have all turned out to be salty and not good for human consumption due to their proximity to the lake. Now all this has changed.

The solution? To drill a borehole some seven kilometres away, in the mountainous region of Kareedome, and pipe the water to Nayenakabaran. This involves a 10 metre elevated tank which can store 20,000 litres of water at the borehole, solar panels to power a pump, and a pipeline 70 cm deep to transport the water to two water distribution tanks at the nursery school and in the village.

In the village of Kareedome where the borehole is situated, the villagers already have access to clean drinking water, but the new borehole will also now provide a water trough for the nomads and shepherds to use for their animals. The benefits of this are clear - readily available drinking water for people and animals, less time spent by women and girls fetching water, giving more chance of attending school, and greater economic power for local people as their animals represent their wealth and source of nutrition.

In addition, shepherds will not need to venture large distances to find water and pasture for their animals, which can put them at great risk from cattle rustling and attacks by other tribes.

Also health problems are reduced with access to water, and the improved diet arising from new opportunities to grow fruit and vegetables. And when the droughts come, the people are better placed to cope.

The joy of the people of this village at the results of this project can be clearly seen in this video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7kw9cmIcec

The project, run by the St Paul's Missionary Community, is supported by the London-based charity New Ways, which is run entirely by volunteers. If you would like to donate to their work see: www.justgiving.com/campaign/boreholes2023