By Robert Kibet NAIROBI (IDN) – Braving a scorching temperature, 38-year-old Caroline Rono rambles barefoot along a tiny path that snakes in the direction of the reptile-infested salty seasonal Lake Solai in Kenya’s Rift Valley with the giggling baby on her back swaying to the movement of her mother’s hips.
“We, the women shoulder the burden of collecting and carrying water for domestic use, and sometime for weak animals during extreme drought,” Caroline, who hails from Kibatat village, some 4 km from Lake Solai, told IDN through a translator..”When hand-dug wells dry up, we are forced to walk hours to collect water.” Diana Mutai is 43-years-old and ever since she was a little girl, it has been her chore to fetch water for the family.
I did not get back home until afternoon.
Now, through the intervention of non-state actors, mostly international non-governmental organisations like World Vision Kenya (WVK), a significant number of women and girls in rural Kenya can access water not only at a safe distance, but also water that is clean and potable.
To alleviate the risks that women like Diana face in collecting water in Solai, has WVK built a 192-element solar panel balanced precariously atop a metal supported roof that can pump water from a 180 metre-deep borehole.
“When we dug this borehole, at first we were for generator-set powered water pumps but we realised it would be costly,” said Njehia.
Peter Ndegwa of St Joseph Church in Wenje Parish says the 21kilowatt solar powered borehole has spared the community, especially women and girls, the long distance walked to the river and reduced the risks of women being attacked by predators.
“Here, women have been trekking about 15 km to fetch water from crocodile-infested River Tana.
According to the Crocodile Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) involved in conservation of 23 species of alligators, crocodiles, caimans and gharials in the wild, the incidence of crocodilian attacks in many countries is very difficult to quantify because “many more people are attacked than is reported, as many attacks occur in remote areas.” “With the clean water which is available now at the homestead, our women and girls do not risk attack from crocodiles or other predators.
[IDN-InDepthNews – 2 July 2017] Photo: In the rural areas of Kenya, the burden of collecting, carrying and managing water (often contaminated) has always rested on the shoulders of women.