Kenya Turkana Day 2.5 043, rev.jpg
Turkana, in northern Kenya, has been hit by a massive drought for over a year, triggered and worsened by the effects of El Nino. Under a program called Kenya Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development (Kenya-RAPID), funded by USAID and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), CRS is the lead NGO in Isiolo and Turkana Counties working working with Catholic Church dioceses to support the County governments as they develop their capacities to sustainably tap and exploit precious water reserves in Kenya's Arid and Semi-Arid Lands, or ASALs. Substantial water supplies lie below ground, so using them responsibly and maintaining them at the County level (as part of Kenya's devolution under the new Constitution of 2010) is key to the economic development of these traditionally marginalized lands. In the ASALs, crop farming is possible only along riverbeds and/or with irrigation, so livestock is a mainstay of the economy. Ensuring access to water for livestock and people is a major pillar of the program.
Here, a technician from ICT4D partner in K-RAPID, a Portland, Oregon-based company called SweetSense, installs a solar powered sensor at the location of a major borehole in Lodwar, the seat of Turkana County. The borehole is also solar-powered and provides substantial water to LOWASCO, the Lodwar Water and Sanitation Company, the County's water utility. If there is ever a problem at the borehole, especially if water stops flowing for some reason, the sensors detect this discrepancy as they monitor water levels, quantities being pumped, etc. With this data relayed over satellite networks (or, where available, over mobile phone networks), a team can be dispatched immediately to assess the problem and have repairs made.
Prior to the sensors, boreholes could remain broken for weeks and months, because there was no reporting system unless a person actually took the steps to report the breakdown himself or herself. And in the most remote parts of Turkana, communities don't have transportation, often they have no telephones even where there is a mobile network, and so reports were a rarity.
Amid drought, if boreholes break down in Turkana, it can be fatal for the most vulnerable people, and livestock can die in droves. Currently 2.7 million people in Kenya need food aid due to the drought, and by August 2017, that is expected to worsen to 3.5 million people in need of food aid, because the most recent rains largely failed again.
Photo by Nancy McNally/Catholic Relief Services
Kenya Turkana Day 2.5 043, rev.jpg
Turkana, in northern Kenya, has been hit by a massive drought for over a year, triggered and worsened by the effects of El Nino. Under a program called Kenya Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development (Kenya-RAPID), funded by USAID and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), CRS is the lead NGO in Isiolo and Turkana Counties working working with Catholic Church dioceses to support the County governments as they develop their capacities to sustainably tap and exploit precious water reserves in Kenya's Arid and Semi-Arid Lands, or ASALs. Substantial water supplies lie below ground, so using them responsibly and maintaining them at the County level (as part of Kenya's devolution under the new Constitution of 2010) is key to the economic development of these traditionally marginalized lands. In the ASALs, crop farming is possible only along riverbeds and/or with irrigation, so livestock is a mainstay of the economy. Ensuring access to water for livestock and people is a major pillar of the program.
Here, a technician from ICT4D partner in K-RAPID, a Portland, Oregon-based company called SweetSense, installs a solar powered sensor at the location of a major borehole in Lodwar, the seat of Turkana County. The borehole is also solar-powered and provides substantial water to LOWASCO, the Lodwar Water and Sanitation Company, the County's water utility. If there is ever a problem at the borehole, especially if water stops flowing for some reason, the sensors detect this discrepancy as they monitor water levels, quantities being pumped, etc. With this data relayed over satellite networks (or, where available, over mobile phone networks), a team can be dispatched immediately to assess the problem and have repairs made.
Prior to the sensors, boreholes could remain broken for weeks and months, because there was no reporting system unless a person actually took the steps to report the breakdown himself or herself. And in the most remote parts of Turkana, communities don't have transportation, often they have no telephones even where there is a mobile network, and so reports were a rarity.
Amid drought, if boreholes break down in Turkana, it can be fatal for the most vulnerable people, and livestock can die in droves. Currently 2.7 million people in Kenya need food aid due to the drought, and by August 2017, that is expected to worsen to 3.5 million people in need of food aid, because the most recent rains largely failed again.
Photo by Nancy McNally/Catholic Relief Services