Residents of Kyumbi recently witnessed the effective start of the rehabilitation of the town's water reservoir, located in the Athi River sub-county of Kenya. The modernised structure will have a storage capacity of 45,000 m3.
The more than 18,000 residents of Kyumbi could soon have a better supply of drinking water and irrigation water. This is the aim of the project to rehabilitate the dam in this locality in Kenya’s Athi River sub-county. The work was launched recently by the National Irrigation Authority (NIA), which provides and coordinates the sustainable development and management of irrigation services in the East African country.
According to the public body, the rehabilitated reservoir will have a storage capacity of 45,000 m3. “Part of the resource will be treated to supply 3,000 households with drinking water”, explained Gilbert Maluki, Chairman of the NIA Board of Directors, during the ceremony to launch the work in Kyumbi.
Funding from South Korea
Water will also be pumped to supply irrigation canals to meet farmers’ water needs. The NIA, which is carrying out the rehabilitation work, estimates that the dam will be able to irrigate up to 20 hectares of plantations in Kyumbi.
The work as a whole will require funding of up to 25 million Kenyan shillings, or more than $168,000. The funds will be deducted from the envelope granted by South Korea for the rehabilitation of 2,000 dams dating from the colonial era and 5,000 wells throughout Kenya. “The aim is to restore these structures in preparation for the El Niño rains”, explained Gilbert Maluki, the NIA’s CEO.
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In Kenya and throughout the Horn of Africa, the El Niño phenomenon results in heavy rainfall, causing flooding and crop losses for farming communities. To improve food security, the Kenyan government is also planning to build 10,000 small dams across the country for small-scale irrigation.
Inès Magoum
