The dire situation is blamed on total crop failure and last year’s politics.
He spoke to the media in Kabarnet town yesterday.
Cheptarus urged teachers to assist leaders and parents in mobilising children to resume school.
A spot check by the Star along the Kerio Valley in Baringo North on Monday revealed poverty, hunger and water shortage.
Some children from more than 30 schools in the county are yet to resume schools this term.
The majority are at home assisting their parents with household chores, herding livestock and trekking for long distances in searching of water.
Resident Reuben Aengwo, a parent at Cheptigit Primary School said half of the pupils have not gone to school.
“At one time the school had a class eight stream, but due to harsh drought conditions, pupils dropped out.
Rains failed from last July.
He appealed to the state to start a school feeding programme to attract children in the arid and semi-arid areas back in school.

Residents of Ilorin and its environs are apparently groaning following perennial water scarcity which has resurfaced in the city.
The residents of Ilorin town would have to walk a distance to fetch water for drinking and for other domestic use.
Many residents are sourcing water from motorized borehole drilled by the privileged individuals in their areas.
Some residents at Emir’s road, Balogun Fulani, Taiwo road, Okelele, Gambari and Baboko among others disclosed that the pitiable situation had become a recurrence decimal in the Kwara capital.
“No sooner that dry season sets in; we begin to experience water scarcity in earnest.
“It has become a perennial experience that government will need to urgently address with short and long term measures”, Ronke Asekunlowo said.
Mr Abdulrazaq Akorede, the state Commissioner for Water Resource while reacting, said the problem of water shortage in Ilorin would soon be resolved once the ongoing water reticulation project is completed.
He explained that both the state and the Federal Governments had carried out interventions on some water projects in the state.
According to him, there was an ongoing expansion of Malete waterworks and Agba Dam waterworks, which is almost completed.
He added that the state government would also work on the Oyun waterworks.

The Mahadayi water dispute has the potential to decide the fate of parties in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly polls.
The last few weeks have seen political gimmickry over the crucial issue of water for a parched region, but we are no closer to finding a solution than we were before.
The dispute is about sharing the waters of the Mahadayi river that originates in Karnataka and flows into Goa.
The tribunal has already rejected Karnataka’s plea to draw 7.56 tmcft of water; the final hearing will begin on February 6.
Farmers demanding the project’s implementation have been on a protest for over two years now; with no end in sight, the agitations have often turned violent.
The BJP recently got Goa CM Manohar Parrikar to write a letter to its Karnataka unit president B S Yeddyurappa, assuring the latter he would consider Karnataka’s demand for drinking water.
Goa had earlier consistently resisted attempts to reach a negotiated settlement; so this move is a political ploy ahead of polls.
The Congress said Parrikar should have written to his Karnataka counterpart if he was sincere about resolving the issue, leading to a blame game.
The farmers, seeing the emptiness of the gesture, escalated their agitation, leading to an ugly standoff at the BJP office in Bengaluru.
Whatever the tribunal decides, the best solution can only come out of negotiations that take into account the needs of people in both states.

Originally published on Planestave.
It bears remembering that much of what is now the Middle East and the Mediterranean was before the human population expansion of the last few thousand years humid and heavily forested, with incredible fertile soils — the reason that the region is the diminished shell that it now is follows from massive deforestation, the strip-mining of the soil for agriculture, and animal husbandry (over-grazing).
With all of that in mind, the recent news that the head of Israel’s Agriculture Ministry, Uri Ariel — a man who has a large ability to shape the country’s approach to water use and conservation — was leading prayers at Jerusalem’s Western Wall calling for rain is worth considering.
While Uri Ariel, an Orthodox Jew, arguably is claiming to do just that, I’m skeptical that the actions taken by Israel to date are at all serious as regarding climate change and water conservation.
So, while Ariel stated: “We significantly lowered the cost of water, we are carrying out many studies on how to save water in different crops, but prayer can certainly help,” I can’t help but hear someone saying that none of the available but unpalatable options are to be pursued, so we may as well put on a show so that it looks like we’re doing something.
To use the “exact” words: “Prayer is not a bad thing, but the minister has the ability to influence (matters) in slightly more earthly ways.” No kidding.
Shouldn’t you pursue the actions first and then use prayer to ask for proper guidance of your actions?
All of this is probably a moot point though, as truly effective actions to prepare for and limit anthropogenic climate change and the accompanying water scarcity in the region aren’t likely to be willingly embraced by a relatively wealthy population — like that of Israel.
“A crowd of a few thousand gathered at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s old city, the holiest place for Jews to worship, chanting a special prayer to end the drought.” The thing to bear in mind here, is that the expansionary agriculture and domesticated animals paradigm that turned much of the land of the Middle East, the Near East, and many other places into the diminished places that they now are is essentially the same one that calls for every expanding “growth,” resource extraction, and consumption — whatever the costs.
A reassertion of the need for self-responsibility and accountability would be welcome in my opinion — the truth is that every single person in the “developed” world, regardless of political affiliations, is contributing directly and significantly to what’s happening to the world’s climate, oceans, soils, wildlife, etc.

Haryana Nangal Choudhary MLA apprises Khattar of problem Ravinder Saini Mahendragarh, January 2 The fear of rabi crops drying due to inadequate supply of irrigation water looms in Bhungarka, Shimli, Akbarpur, Sirohi-Bahali and Nangal Kalia villages of the Nangal Choudhary region here.
Farmers of these villages say sufficient canal water was available when they cultivated mustard, gram and wheat crops but water scarcity these days could ruin them.
“Our crops are on the verge of getting damaged as we are not getting adequate canal water for the past over a month.
We have submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister to the Deputy Commissioner, urging him to redress their grievance.
Moreover, installation of a tube well is banned here.
Meanwhile, Abhay Singh Yadav, BJP legislator from Nangal Choudhary, has urged Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to make water available in the district to protect rabi crops from drying.
“I have apprised the Chief Minister on the phone about the scarcity of irrigation water for rabi crops in the district.
Farmers were glad to get adequate canal water for cultivating crops in October and November but they are now worried that their crops will get damaged if they are not irrigated again soon,” says Yadav, adding that farmers will suffer heavy financial losses in case of crop loss.
SK Yadav, Superintendent Engineer (Irrigation), Narnaul, says adequate water is being supplied to villages from the Nawalpur distributary.
“Only some villages located at the tail-end are not getting canal water but we are making efforts to ensure canal water reaches there,” he adds.

Deogarh: Though the State government has declared Deogarh the first ‘open defecation-free’ district, the ground reality tells a different story.
Owing to the lack of piped water supply for villages in the district, people have not been able to use latrines built under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
Like the villagers of Sanadangaghat in the district who have failed to put the latrines to use due to water scarcity.
Babita Munda, a resident of Sanadangaghat, said, “Some villagers are using latrines as store rooms whereas some others have just abandoned it.
Prakash Kumar Acharya, another resident stated, “Latrine is built in every household in the village.
Of the six tubewells in the village four are dysfunctional.
Hence, residents of Sanadangaghat depend upon the Gohira nullah located one km away from the village for daily chores.
Refuting any problem, Deogarh collector Purna Chandra Pathy claimed that more than 80% people of the district are using toilets.
“Issues of the rest 20% will be resolved in a short period,” he added.
He further informed the Deogarh administration has sent a proposal on water planning to the State government for approval.

The city’s six major reservoirs are expected, by late April, to run dry on “Day Zero.” For months, local authorities encouraged residents to cut water consumption.
Although some Cape Town residents have complied–34 percent use less than 87 liters each day–many households continue to flout the water restrictions.
Last week, water use jumped to 641 million liters, up from 628 million liters the week before.
In response, the city is considering jail time for heavy water users.
Following the spike in water use, city officials announced that the estimate for Day Zero is being moved forward to April 29, 2018.
The date is based on the city’s 500 million liters per day target, plus the addition of 196 million liters per day after February 1, which will come from a variety of water-yielding projects that the government is putting in place.
The Western Cape is South Africa’s only province run by the Democratic Alliance; the ruling African National Congress controls the rest of the country.
Water Crisis Politics In 2007, South Africa’s national Department of Water and Sanitation warned Cape Town that it would need new water sources by 2015, based on normal rainfall and rising demand.
In 2015, the national government allocated 60 percent of the Western Cape’s water to Cape Town and most of the remaining 40 percent to agriculture, even as reservoir levels began to falter.
The national government, on the other hand, has criticized Cape Town’s local government for its lack of adequate preparation.

Uttarakhand Dehradun, December 26 To address the problem of water scarcity in rural areas of Uttarakhand, each of 750 van panchayats in the state will get a pond of around one lakh litre capacity by June 2018.
This was revealed at the Uttarakhand Forest Resource Management Project review meeting held in Dehradun today.
The project is being implemented by the Uttarakhand Forest Department with the financial support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Chairing the meeting, Uttarakhand Additional Chief Secretary Ranbeer Singh said that following Uttarakhand Chief Minister’s directives Uttarakhand Forest Resource Management Project has made provisions to construct one pond of around one lakh litre capacity in each of the 750 van panchayats in Uttarkhand by June 2018.
He said the project would create one model water conservation scheme in each of the 13 forest divisions in the state, which he said would improve water availability to four to five van panchayats over the next three years.
Sharing the progress made under the various components of the project in the state over the last two years, Chief Project Director Uttarakhand Forest Resource Management Project Anup Malik said so far the project had helped to construct around 3,500 small and big chaal, khaal and other traditional water bodies in around 400 van panchayats in the state.
En-course of the review of the progress of eco-restoration and nursery production works, it was disclosed at the meeting that a total of 37,500 hectares of degraded forests area would be restored under the project.
A total of 130 lakh seedlings would be raised and planted under the project, of which 33.95 lakh seedling have already been planted,” Anup Malik pointed out.
It is noteworthy that Uttarakhand Forest Resource Management Project has an outlay of Rs 807 crore and the project activities would be taken up in 750 van panchayats across 13 forest divisions of the state.

Most villages in the region lack pipe-borne water.
“At times they returned tired and sleep through the rest of the day or they just go home.
Even children who brought water in bottles sometimes follow their peers to the streams.” He said, adding it had a negative impact on schooling.
The villagers had also agreed on opening and closing hours for the borehole which along with eight others, serve a community of over 6000 people.
While refugees and locals in Ngouva and other zones harmoniously enjoy the UNICEF, SIDA water project, the case is different in the town of Nagonda, Garoua-Boulai.
Kamnga Golike, traditional ruler of Nagonda told Journal du Cameroun there have been violent clashes between villagers and CAR refugees over the newly rehabilitated borehole.
“This town has more refugees than locals and some people insist refugees should fetch water in refugee camps.
“This disagreement is prompted by the fact that too many people depend on one borehole and streams are drying up.
Creating another borehole would be a sustainable solution.” He said.
For instance the Mandjou municipality habours 68, 240 inhabitants, but has only 33 boreholes.

Residents of Abosomtwe Agya, a suburb of Konongo in the Ashanti Region, who hitherto battled with water scarcity can now heave some sigh of relief following the provision of potable drinking water by Engage Now Africa, a non-governmental organisation.
The community with a population of over 5,000 has been depending on a polluted river as a source of drinking water and for other purposes including farming.
Residents also compete with animals for the same source of water.
Running water carries mud and other debris including human excreta into the river especially when it rains exposing residents to skin and water-borne diseases.
Addressing a gathering to commission a mechanised borehole for the community, Country Director for Engage Now Africa, Cecilia Amankwah, said it was part of the NGO’s service to humanity to ensure that everyone gots potable drinking water.
She thanked its donor partners who have been supporting their projects over the years.
‘’Our main vision is to help uplift, deliver and to heal our African brothers and sisters through education, medical services and also eradication of modern slavery.
A leader of women group in Abosomtwe Agya, Madam Martha Afiriyie, said the project will increase the use of clean water for drinking and food preparation and awareness of good hygiene practices by children and families.
He noted that the provision of potable water to the community would make it easier for teachers and nurses to accept postings to the area to improve the educational and health status of the people and reduce the long distances children had to walk to get water.
He urged members of the community to improve their participation in the ownership and maintenance of the facilities through community sensitisation, mobilisation, training in water maintenance and hygiene to ensure its sustainability.