Sh4.3m borehole a white elephant in Laikipia

A borehole sunk in Dol Dol town in Laikipia County five years ago for Sh4.3 million has turned out to be a white elephant, pumping out thousands of litres of water daily that goes to waste.

In a case of scarcity amid plenty, residents of the Laikipia North sub-county headquarters are forced to walk long distances in search of the precious commodity as drought ravages the region.

The Tool Borehole was an initiative of the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) and was sunk in the sunset term of the first Laikipia woman representative, Ms Jane Apollos, who was voted out a month later.

When the project was commissioned on July 6, 2017, the intended beneficiaries hailed it as a timely intervention that would remove the heavy burden from the shoulders of women.

“I have been walking for two hours daily with a 20-litre jerrican and at the water point, I have to wait for elephants to have their fill first before I venture in. This borehole has come as a big relief to me and many other women from my locality,” Ms Margaret Kipish told Ms Apollos at the time.

But soon afterwards residents realised that the borehole’s water had high levels of salt and was unfit for human and animal consumption. 

A spot check by the Nation last Tuesday established that residents were struggling to get water from dry river beds, where they scoop sand to reach the water as the commodity from the borehole flows to waste.

“We are lucky that it rained heavily yesterday and women can now get water from sand dams at the nearby Loisukut lagga (dry riverbeds). But for months, they have been walking to distant boreholes to get water,” said Ms Loise Kimiri, a community health volunteer.

Ms Kimiri explained that the water, though flowing in plenty from the solar-powered borehole, has a repelling colour and smell and even livestock and wildlife do not consume it.

She added that residents use the borehole water only for washing their clothes when there is no other source nearby and that soap does not dissolve easily in it.

“Our appeal is to the Laikipia County water department to intervene and treat the water chemically to reduce the level of salt. Public funds were spent here but the project is not benefiting the targeted community of about 1,500 people,” said Ms Kimiri.

Water and Environment executive Peter Matunge acknowledged that the borehole water has extremely high levels of salt and does not benefit the community.

“We are aware of the Tool Borehole, but the problem is that the project was implemented by the national government without involving this office,” Mr Matunge told the Nation in his office.

“In an ideal situation, the implementers of this project were supposed to do it in consultation with the county government and from there, this office would have taken over the responsibility of ensuring the borehole benefits the residents.”

The only way to remove the excess salt, he said, would be by using a technology called reverse osmosis, which is expensive. An alternative, he added, would be to blend the borehole water with water piped from Mt Kenya under the ongoing Makurian Water project.

“Currently, there is an ongoing project of piping water from the Timau intake, 32km away, to Kiwanja Ndege village. Once the first phase of this Sh140 million project is completed, we shall extend it to Dol Dol town and we can blend the water to dilute the salinity of the borehole water,” he said.

He said his department had sunk 86 boreholes across the county in the last five years and rehabilitated 110 others.

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