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{
    "id": 1272058,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1272058/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 183,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Alice Wahome",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Water, Sanitation and Irrigation",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the answer to that particular question is that it is true there are no rivers in Wajir, but we have underground water. We have quite a good amount of water in the aquifers. At the moment, we have a programme where we are doing our investigative survey, data collection and assessment of the amount of water within the combined or the shared aquifer between Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. We have an aquifer covering that region; we have funding and the project has already commenced. We have a Kshs20 billion funding to cover Wajir, Garissa, Turkana, Mandera and Marsabit, where the main effort is to do our analysis and find out how much water we have in the aquifers and how much can be available for use by the three countries. Being an aquifer, it is a shared water resource and, therefore, one country cannot proceed to exploit that without cooperation with the other countries. You asked a question on Tana River clusters; the dams. Our study on this particular river is complete. Again, we do the work and look for resources. We can farm about 20,000 acres. The study is ready and we will be moving forward to seek resources for this particular project, and it will turn that area into a different place. We have additional work that is planned for boreholes and water pans as the other alternative. The boreholes become a big challenge in that once you access the water, the salt levels become a challenge. There are also cases where we get a borehole done for the community and some cartels take over the water resource or the water borehole, and they run it as individuals. That requires the community effort and the leadership support because when we have a borehole that is taken over by one or two people and they are guarding it with arms, insecurity issues arise. I am not saying that is happening in his particular area but, generally, that is a challenge for Marsabit, Mandera, Garissa and Wajir."
}