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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is a paradox because this happened just four months ago. Right now, the same river is so low that communities are almost fighting over water. The ones living upstream are now engaging in flower farming and are in need of this water. The water levels have also gone down and we are now crying downstream because all the water is being held upstream. The water is being used to irrigate flowers and wheat, especially in Sen. G.G. Kariuki’s county. However, this is all an issue of lack of planning and misguided allocation of resources. I am sure that since Independence, if we look at the kind of money that has been allocated to Isiolo County and other counties that are down the rivers, if proper planning was done and priorities were set, we would not have these kinds of problems. Water is life, and if this water was tapped, it could be useful to us, instead of making it a nuisance to us and three months later, it becomes a commodity that we fight over. This then becomes a paradox. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is where devolution has a very important meaning. In the past, officers in various ministries used to sit and decide how much and for what purpose monies should be used. They would even put a vote number to ensure that we could not spend outside the budget. We would suffer while that money was just held up in different votes that could not be used and, come the end of the financial year on 30th June, quite a huge chunk of that money would be returned to the Treasury. This is because we did not prioritize. But we hope that county governments will work on such projects. This is the time when money can be rationalized and prioritized. We have agreed with the Governor of Isiolo County that food security, through control of waters of Ewaso Nyiro River – I am sorry I have not mentioned much on Tana River – but this is the same scenario that the people living along Athi, Tana and Ewaso Nyiro rivers are facing. I am giving my personal experience. I am sure this is the same experience facing those living downstream of rivers. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to come up with massive dams to deal with the excess water. We should do this over a period of time because of the high cost of putting up such dams. We may not be able to put up many of them at once. We need to prioritize construction of mega dams which will take a good chunk of this water and facilitate storage. This will ensure that when it rains, the river waters do not become destructive. Secondly, when the water levels are low, we will continue to use the harvested water. This way, we will harness food production. In Isiolo County, we have said that we should stop the culture of receiving relief food because we have black cotton soil and water from the Ewaso Nyiro River. Those are the ingredients of producing enough food for export to other counties or even outside this country. In the last Parliament, every month I would get information to the effect that, for example, 1,200 bags of maize, 500 bags of beans, a number of gallons of oil, rice, etcetera, is going to my constituency. This culture causes dependency. The communities are always expectant saying: “Relief food has not come” Do you know that we have not received relief food?” This happens yet there is water passing near where they are living. This same water is also disastrous to them. However, the communities also make an effort to dig minor trenches to do irrigation. Those who have put in more effort feed other villages downstream. I have seen a village which has put their act together. They have dug trenches and are able to produce enough food. However, there are other areas where The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}