Water and Irrigation CS Eric Mugaa wants engineers to come up with sustainable designs for bulk water harvesting solutions like sand dams for arid and semi-arid areas.
Mugaa said the move would be a big limp towards addressing perennial food shortages in the regions and the country at large.
He said the focus on capital intensive ground water harvesting through the sinking of boreholes had proved unreliable usually providing insufficient water.
The CS noted that borehole sinking hardly meets the growing water demand for domestic and irrigation purposes.
Mugaa made the observation at the end of a whirlwind tour of water projects in Ukambani last week. He visited projects in Machakos and Kitui counties.
He urges engineers tasked with running water agencies under his ministry to align their focus with the present day realities of a growing population and a worsening climate crisis.
“The country is well endowed with countless ideal sites for sand dams along seasonal rivers that can support large scale irrigation to feed the country,” Mugaa said.
He added that going forward the government would seek to implement sand-dam projects through the public private partnerships funding model.
“The government and private companies can effectively work together to finance, build and operate such projects,” noted the CS during a meeting at Tanathi Water Works Development Agency in Kitui.
He said millions of public funds have been going into waste through the sinking of boreholes that dry up after a few years or are too saline to support meaningful agriculture.
“To achieve expansion of irrigation targeting millions of acres and reduce over-reliance on rain-fed farming, we must focus more on dams, which will be huge changer in rural areas” the CS said.
The CS inspected the ongoing works of the Sh1.7 billion Mwala Cluster Water Project in Machakos county accompanied by Tanathi Water Works Development Agency CEO Sammy Naporos and Mwala MP Vincent Musyoka Kawaya.
He hailed the project as being aligned to President William Ruto’s grand plan to not only make Kenya food secure but also a net exporter of agriculture products.
Mugaa further urged counties to deepen collaboration with the national government to unlock faster, more efficient and sustainable delivery of water services to Kenyans.
He said projects under the bulk water harvesting programme will need collaboration with counties to attain last mile connectivity in rural villages.
The CS emphasised that meaningful development can only be realised through strong intergovernmental coordination.
He said fragmented efforts and lack of alignment between the two levels of government often lead to delays, duplication and underutilisation of resources.
“Such challenges that can be avoided through structured cooperation and shared planning,” Mugaa added.
