A woman in Marsabit at a waterpoint, the residents have been urged to involve WRA while planning to drill boreholes. Photo: KNA.
Water Resource Authority (WRA), has called on residents to work and collaborate with them when they plan to drill boreholes in the areas.
According to the regional Director Center on Groundwater Resources Education and Training (RCW) Agnes Mbugua, the two organisations are closely working together to ensure enough and quality water supply in the region.
Speaking during an event that brought residents and their stakeholders on water resourcefulness, Mbugua said that they will want to ensure that residents fully adhere to the guidelines on water levels on the ground while drilling their boreholes.
“The issue of the number or boreholes in an area is regulated by Water Resources Authority, but for us as research institution and technical in that domain, we normally check on the number of the depth, quality and quantity of water, if we realize that aquifer contains a lot of depending on the need of community, water we normally advise for abstraction to some extent,” she explained.
Mbugua further explained that the abstraction of ground water is limited by the amount of ground water, the depth and the quality, as well as the demand of the community, is among factors they consider for recharge.
Additionally, she urged the residents to use proper channels to safeguard drilled water, like planting grass around the wells, and trees that do well in the region.
“Ground water is the main source of water in Marsabit, the control of abstraction amount is controlled by WRA. When it comes to allocation, as a research institute we normally quantify and qualify the amount of water that is there, and then we give the information to the Ministry of Water and policy makers, so that they can make decisions, which are from our findings,” she further explained.
She further informed the residents that to take care of the environment, and shun from activities that destroy and have adverse effects on the environment like cutting down of trees.
Sora Katello, Senior Director at the Marsabit Water Supply, lauded the RCW, for creating awareness among residents on ensuring water safety an requirements on drilling boreholes, he expressed his commitment of the authority’s efforts and support to ensure residents receive safe water across Marsabit.
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