County seeks solutions in Lake Kanyaboli

Busia, Wednesday, May 17, 2023

KNA by Salome Alwanda

Leaders from both Busia and Siaya Counties held a joint meeting to deliberate ways of addressing the floods at Lake Kanyaboli.

Speaking during a joint disaster committee meeting at Lake Agro Office Premises in Siaya County, Busia Governor Paul Otuoma said that there was a need to put up a cluster dam to reduce the volume of flowing water downstream to Budalangi.

“Nearly two wards in that Sub County have been affected, hospitals, roads have also been affected,” he said, adding that the incident is an unusual phenomenon.

Otuoma added that the joint committee is in talks with the national government leadership in Nairobi and the CS for Public Service, Aisha Jumwa has agreed to send the National Youth Service Engineers to come and help salvage the situation.

“I am sure they are going to escalate it to other Government agencies and the Kenya Red Cross Society to come on board," he said, adding that the two county governments have agreed on immediate and long term solutions to the problem.

He further stated that there is a likelihood of crop failure and outbreak of waterborne diseases in the affected areas hence the need for urgent solutions.

"We have already heard that there is a reported case of cholera outbreak in Ukwala and that is where we need joint health departments to be prepared to prevent these waterborne diseases,” he said, adding that other sector platers are helping with mosquito nets to prevent malaria.

Busia Acting County Commissioner, Kipchumba Ruto said that the joint committee had agreed on a raft of measures to be undertaken by the National and County government officials from both counties to address the problem.

Ruto added that the team had appealed to the State Department for Public Service to bring some equipment to assist in the construction of the broken dyke as fast as possible.

“We want to assure the affected local residents downstream in Bunyala and upstream at Kanyaboli that all will be well soon,” he said.

He noted that a number of schools have been affected downstream and the Lake Kanyaboli is receding making communities around to lack clean drinking water.

Siaya County Chief of Staff, Col (Rtd.) Cyrus Oguna said that the team has been able to identify the affected areas and come up with required interventions.

Oguna stated that the two counties need to work together to ensure that the lives of the affected people are restored.

Alego -Usonga Deputy County Commissioner, Robert Ngetich expressed confidence that their resolutions will greatly help in remedying the water menace.

Approximately 3,000 households in Bunyala Sub County have been affected with around 8,000 acres of crops destroyed by the ravaging water from Lake Kanyaboli in Siaya County.

Courtesy; K.N.A