“But if all goes well, we can say that this really is a game changer.” Close
to half of Kenya’s 41 million people have no access to clean water, and
farmers in arid areas struggle to raise crops without adequate irrigation.
Tapping the new reserves, in the Lotikipi Basin in the Turkana region and
other areas nearby, could create vast new zones of farmland in landscapes
where today even the hardiest plants struggle to survive.
“The news about these water reserves comes at a time when reliable water
supplies are highly needed,” said Judi Wakhungu, cabinet secretary at the
Kenyan environment, water and natural resources ministry.
“This newly found wealth of water opens a door to a more prosperous future for
the people of Turkana and the nation as a whole.
“We must now work to further explore these resources responsibly and safeguard
them for future generations.” There have been similar announcements of
massive new water finds beneath Africa’s driest areas in the past.
In 2007, scientists said that they had identified an underground “megalake” in
Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region that was ten times the size of the Kenyan
discovery, but its bounty has yet to be tapped.
“From what I’ve seen of the figures on the Turkana find, it looks very
encouraging,” said Brian McSorley, a water expert at Oxfam in Nairobi.
“But knowing there’s water there, and then getting it to the surface, are two
different things. There will need to be decent follow-up studies and then
proper investment to ensure it benefits the poorest people there.” The
aquifers lie as deep as 1,000 feet, which poses significant technological
and cost challenges compared to shallower reserves, Mr McSorley said.
Kenya’s government will now carry out further drilling in areas surrounding
the sites where the new water supplies were first drawn to the surface, to
gather more data on their true extent.
The land that lies above is among the most hostile in Kenya. There are few
roads or electricity supplies, and the Turkana, Samburu and Pokot tribes
that live there are regularly at war with each other.
The border area between Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia, known as the Ilemi
Triangle, has never been officially delineated.
Constructing, fuelling and maintaining boreholes, and building pipelines to
bring the water supplies to remote communities, will also pose significant
difficulties.