Solar-powered water projects breathe life into Turkana farms

Droughts have been well documented in the Turkana region of Kenya since the 1960s, projected to occur every five years. However, the dry spells have become a yearly occurrence since the 1990s, with the most recent episode beginning in 2020 killing an estimated half a million livestock by mid-2022.

With the scorching sun becoming a co-existing factor, residents have endured walking for miles in search of water, leaving many physically exhausted yet mentally motivated by the quest for this precious commodity.

However, every cloud has a silver lining. Now, the unbearable hot sun has become their source of water, thanks to introduction of solar-powered water projects by IOM International Organisation for Migration.

The projects do not just symbolise hope, but a generational lifeline. For a county that is mostly nomadic pastoralists, embracing farming is a confirmation and revelation of a community undergoing a marvelous transformation in its quest for sustenance.

Tucked in the outskirts of Kakuma, in Lochorodome village, a group of women and young girls in traditional Turkana attire, can be seen from a distance, queuing with containers at a solar-powered water tank.

They fetch the water in turns to water vegetables on a 10-acre farm close by.

The women have planted vegetables under netted shades. The crops take three months to mature, hence enabling the locals to enjoy four cropping seasons annually.

Divided into groups of 20, each woman is assigned the role of watering the crops every morning and evening.

“Myself with nine others in our group are in the morning shift. Before the introduction of the solar-powered tanks, we would walk so many kilometres in search of water, wasting a lot of time,” recounts 45-year-old Selina Emuria, at a shaded farm.  

“We are mothers and wives. We are the ones who manage our homesteads, so when we go so far away to fetch water, many tasks at home stagnate. We come back home exhausted with house chores awaited us. So these tanks have come as huge saviour to us,” she adds.

Now on their second harvest, the women now hope to start making profit from selling their produce to Kakuma refugee camp residents,” she says.

About 100 kilometres from Kakuma in Nawountos area, a similar scenario can be witnessed as residents queue to fetch water at more solar-powered tanks.

Here, you will find Halima Ing’olan, a mother of six supervising irrigation of more farms. She is grateful that they now do not have to rely on unpredictable rains or trek for kilometres looking water.

Apart from providing the tanks, she says IOM has trained them on good farming practices. “We did not know much about vegetable farming, and would source our veges from Kakuma, which was very expensive. We only knew how to grow millet. Now we have a variety of vegetables,” she says.

“Before the tanks were introduced, we all depended on just one tap for all our needs- drinking, cooking, cleaning, basicall everything. Now everything has been made easier,” she smiles.

Halima adds that the knowledge they have acquired about farming has motivated them to grow more vegetables, and their aim is to sell their produce beyond the community. She urges relevant authorities to improve local infrastructure to ease transporting of their harvests.

Makhale Shadrack, the Operations Officer at Kakuma Town Water Services says there are a total of 30 solar panels each 550 watts, totalling to 16.5 killowatts.

So far, 5,000 people have benefitted from the project, 1,300 directly and 3,700 others indirectly.

“The solars power a submersible pump that is used to pump water using a rising mean of four inches, that is 13.7 kilometres. The water is pumped into an elevated steel tank of 50.4 cubic metres. It’s also using a 75 millimetres distribution pipe into the water kiosk, and another line is directed into the farms,” says Shadrack.

IOM Chief of Mission, Dimanche Sharon, says Kenya is among the countries that have been highly impacted by climate change, after enduring six consecutive failed rain seasons.

“With the failed rains, we had a displacement of people because of drought, and shortly after that, we had el nino rains, which caused more displacement. We had to intervene. We started with floor monitoring to understand the impact of climate change and noted more than half a million people were displaced,” she says.

Some of the adaptation solutions we have employed enable the local community to access clean water sustainably.

“We have come up with advanced technology of getting water, putting in place solarisation of boreholes, either by drilling new ones or rehabilitating previous boreholes that were not functioning very well. We did very extensive analysis in partnership with the government and were able to identify locations,” she says.

Dimanche adds that the Turkana, being a pastoralist community, are now embracing farming. The organisation has linked the residents to markets and offering training on financial literacy.

“Still on adaptation solutions, we have introduced more climate-smart agriculture practices, such as shade netting and drip irrigation,” she says.

Turkana Deputy Governor, Dr John Erus Lopeyok, the county government has come up with mechanisms to utilise the water for specific tasks. “We have almost nine aquifers. We are at different stages of doing feasibility studies on them, partly on viability for farming and other purposes, but at the same time, also trying to look at what is the viable technology to ensure that areas, especially Turkana West, where the water is highly saline and the technology we will use for deflouridation,” she explains.

Reena Ghelani, the UN Assistant Secretary General and Climate Crisis Coordinator for El Niño / La Niña in Turkana, locals have been affected through water scarcity due to the changing climate pattern.

“We have come together to support this community to build new livelihoods, things that will ensure they do not continue to survive on handouts. We are looking at new agricultural techniques where they are harvesting water using solar powe, among other innovations that work in drought conditions, to build themselves,” she says.

According to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), two million people in the 23 Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) remain food-insecure.  About 847,932 children aged between six and 59 months and 124,359 pregnant and breastfeeding women require treatment for acute malnutrition.

This is attributed to prolonged effects of the last drought that devastated local livelihoods and assets. Other risks, such as floods and Rift Valley Fever have also aggravated the situation.

Data from Relief Web shows that between July and September 2023, about 2.8 million people in Kenya’s ASALs were classified in Integrated Food Security (IPC) Phase Three or above (crisis or worse). Among them, 2.3 million are experiencing crisis and nearly 500,000 are in IPC Phase Four (emergency).

The Integrated Food Security Classification, says The IPC Acute Food Insecurity (IPC AFI) classification is used to provide information to decision makers that focuses on short-term objectives to prevent, mitigate or decrease severe food insecurity that threatens lives or livelihoods.