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{
    "id": 398838,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/398838/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 114,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "northern Kenya, and they talked of the water quality there. There was once a cancer outbreak in my own village, Kargi Village, where I come from in Marsabit, and it is still recurring; we lose two to three people per month in a small village in the middle of nowhere where cancer was never there before. When research was done, people were rushing to the water, saying “let us look at the water” in terms of mineral content of the water – the nitrites, arsenics and all that. But if you check, the same people will say in the same report that the quality of ground water in northern Kenya is generally not fit for human consumption; it is generally outside the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. So, it is contradictory; that could not be the source. So, it means that the ground water we are accessing is not safe for us. So, that leaves us with rain water. If it rained two to three times in a year, we would have enough water. We have flashfloods which cause damage to infrastructure. As a result, bridges and culverts are washed away. The Ministry of Roads then starts looking for emergency funds to rehabilitate roads. We do not have money to do many things but our little money goes into rehabilitating our infrastructure. After that, we experience drought. We then start talking about money for water tankering, drilling boreholes and this is a vicious cycle that we cannot get out of. That is why we need a policy to harvest rain water. It was suggested that in the homesteads, we have roof catchments which is good. In institutions like schools and hospitals, we have water reservoirs that provide enough water for drinking and cleaning. However, for the communities that keep livestock, we need to have water pans and large dams so that water that is harvested is of good quality. The water should not have minerals that are not fit for human consumption as we have been told. If we did that, we would have enough water and avoid infrastructure damage. This would improve the livelihoods of people and communities would not fight over water because they would each have their own dam. Two, the quality of livestock would improve because we would have water everywhere. The quality of animals would, therefore, improve. The other issue is about irrigation. Many areas of this country can be irrigated. We are told that Israel lies in a dessert; but it is feeding itself and even exporting some food. Owing to lack of water policies, our food is insufficient and the quality of livestock is not good, therefore, we cannot even export it. It is important to have a policy in place. The Ministry of Water, Environment and Natural Resources has to take this seriously. We must have some policies. Can we have the policies reviewed and concentrate on water harvesting? We know what the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation (NWCPC) has been doing. The problem with Kenyans is that they come up with systems that are good on paper but their intentions are wrong. The issue is: How can I come up with a system, as a Minister and make money before I leave office? The NWCPC was created but if you look at what it did, you will see that it was allocated billions of shillings. However, the corporation has a lot of uncompleted projects all over the place. It has big dams which cost billions of shillings but have not provided a drop of water. The regional authorities also behave the same way. They are not coordinated at all. You even wonder who comes up with these bodies because locals are not consulted. They are not asked where they 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."
}