NDMA pushes solar power for community water projects

Embu,

Thursday July 11, 2024

KNA by Steve Gatheru

The National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) is advocating for community water projects to adopt solar power as an economical and sustainable energy solution.

NDMA CEO Col. (Rtd) Hareed Adan Hassan said going forward, all water projects they fund will be solar power driven, while they are ensuring boreholes that were previously pumped using electricity and generator sets convert to the more affordable solar power.

The CEO was speaking in Embu County, when he visited projects that have received assistance from the Authority to gauge their social impact and determine if they were viable.

At the Karurumo Health Centre, where NDMA helped rehabilitate a borehole and install a solar pumping system, Hassan found that the water supplied since last year had allowed the facility to operate at full capacity, admitting patients and expectant movers who delivered in the maternity wing.

The officer in charge of the facility, Purity Ireri, said the project had saved the health center from the high cost of buying water of doubtful quality from vendors.

She said the health center had recorded a significant drop in the number of patients reporting with water borne diseases, since the facility also supplies clean water to the community through a kiosk.

The facility Management Committee Chairman Joseph Njeru Njagi said the Sh 5 they charge for a 20-liter jerrican was used for maintenance and to pay the operator.

At the Kamarandi CBO Irrigation Project in Mbeere North, the 124 beneficiaries of a 100, 000-liter masonry tank reported that the project had enabled them access enough water for domestic use and irrigation.

Project Chair Joseph Kang'ata Musyoki said before they got the tank the water was irregular, sometimes making the farmers lose their crops.

He said now the beneficiaries grow enough food for their families and sell the surplus to the market.

Musyoki added that they were seeking more help to enable them build more supply lines and water tank to be able to reach more farmers, who would like to join the project, but cannot be connected because of low water volumes.

He also said they were seeking help to acquire more efficient irrigation technologies such as drip systems in order to improve the water use.

NDMA has also supplied local schools with fruit and tree seedlings in the authority's tree growing campaign.

Courtesy; KNA