Uvoo waku…hello and how are you?  I just returned from Ikutha, eastern Kenya, land of the Akamba tribe. It was a wonderful week and a welcome break from my usual life in Kisumu.  

Ikutha, in Eastern Province’s Kitui District, is a small rural town, about 100 km from paved roads, with a population of about a thousand people. There is no power in Ikutha, other than that provided by personal generators. There is no gas station, no water supply, but cell phone service is slowly making its way. (Too bad they can’t use their cell phones to order any power, fuel or water!)

Most of the people in the region are subsistence farmers and pastoralists, so they grow their own food and raise cattle or goats to feed their families. If the growing season goes well, they can sell the extra crops for a profit. Eastern province is a semi-arid region with two rainy seasons, the short rains and the long rains. For a few years in a row the rains have failed, meaning it has rained less than what is required to yield crops (a decent amount anyway). In addition to hindering crop production, the lack of rain has made water collection, an already time-consuming chore, even more burdensome, especially for the women who customarily are the households’ water collectors.

Most residents of Ikutha and Yatta collect water from one of a few sources in the area: the Athi River (which holds water year round), the Tiva River, rain water catchments basins (both natural and man made), a well (hand dug or drilled), or from one of the few springs in the region.  It is common to travel anywhere from 3 km to three days, roundtrip, to collect water depending on the season. Most households own a donkey, which will carry four jerricans, or 80 liters of water, on its back. This is time not spent caring for children, attending to personal needs or engaging in activities that might bring their household a little more income. 

The Tiva River, one of Ikutha’s primary rivers, is dry most of the year although after the rains water can be found just below the surface where it is scooped into jerricans – notice the holes in the river bed.

Water scarcity and the impact this has on the overall health and livelihood of the people is the reason the Rotary Club of Atlanta and local partner ADRA (Adventist Development and relief Agency) have teamed to dig 100 water wells throughout Ikutha and Yatta Divisions of Kitui District. The new water points are estimated to serve 1,000 people per well, making the lives of almost 100,000 people a little bit easier and hopefully healthier.

On this visit I had the opportunity to visit a few of the completed wells. Not only are people spending less time and energy collecting water, but now they are able to grow small kitchen gardens using the graywater from their washing and cooking, make bricks to build schools, and enjoy the new freedoms that having water a little bit closer to home has brought them.