WATER NEEDS ASSESEMENT NACHURO WATER PROJECT.

INTRODUCTION
Nachuro is a sub-location of Turkwel Location, Turkwel Division of Loima District.
The Sub-Location is placed under Arid and semi arid area of Turkana County with all the characteristics of ASAL vegetation.

The project was proposed by the residents of the eight villages who had earlier came together and formed a group and raised proposals to Turkana Central Constituency Development Funds to address the water problem affecting them in their area as well as Initiate development project.
The group prioritized water need requiring immediate attention since the problem has caused them a great deal by de-railing development Initiated projects thus living them in abject poverty.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES
• The main aim of this project is to put to an end the water problem that has prevailed in the area since Independent. This will not only make the supply area better but also ease the suffering of the community
• Availability of clean portable drinking water and attraction of other development projects i.e. Health facility, Schools and others will eliminate prevalent problems in the area.
• Reduced distance to domestic and Livestock watering hence increase in development.

PROPOSED PROJECT AREA COVERAGE
Nachuro Community proposed project is expected to cover eight villages namely:
Nasiger, Nameyana, Nachuro, Lomil etc

This project is anticipated to cover 250 House Holds spread in the entire Sub-Location with a population of 4,000 people.

ACCESSIBILITY

The project area is accessed by a murram road from Lodwar to Nachuro before turning off to North East joining the old Lodwar — Lokichoggio road to Uganda.
There is no public Transport to the project area, therefore people mostly walk or hire Motorcycles commonly known as Bodaboda or Bicycles.

INSTITUT1ONS

There are two ECD classes in the project area, mixed boys and girl’s one initiated by the community and one for the Catholic Church. In the project area there is one Catholic Church.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC

The project area is sparsely populated with a population of 3,000 people of whom 1950 are males while 2,150 are female although the information given is of adult population only, the said population Is distributed among the eight villages.

The targeted community is pre-dominantly by the pure pastoral life style whose economic mainstay is pastoralism with very minimal Agricultural activities initiated through FFA (Food for Assets) by construction of trapezoidal and circular bunds to collect water during flush floods then used to plant Sorghum and cow peas.

According to the statistics by the community elders, Livestock is evenly distributed in the area as land is communally owned, .the total number of livestock given is as follows;
• Cattle - 2,600
• Sheep/Goats 35,000
• Camel-8,000
• Don keys-1000
• Other small scale activities are charcoal burning and running of small retail food kiosks.
• Livestock sales through LMAs and other small stock buyers.

 The area is characterized by extreme temperatures and inadequate erratic rainfall which makes the place unpalatable for large scale farming activities. The situation is even made worse by the sandy soils in the entire project area.

The main use for Land is grazing of Livestock hence Livestock are left grazing freely. Demarcation has never been thought of so people live a migratory lifestyle although Inward migration is mainly experienced from the neighboring Locations and Divisions of Loima.

WATER SOURCES AVAILABLE
There are no permanent water sources within the proximity of the project area, therefore the community scooped water in the middle of dry river beds which only last for a period of 10 months in a year depending on the rains.

During dry spells, the community trek with their Livestock for both domestic and Livestock watering to Turkwel and Kospir rivers estimated to be 24 km. in return.

PROBLEM ANALYSIS
Since the entire Location has no portable clean and safe water for domestic and Livestock watering, there is great need for this community to be given a permanent water source or sources to curb the Increasing water problems that reduced development projects subjecting people to abundant poverty caused by distance trekking to permanent water sources hence increasing mortality rate of Livestock especially during severe droughts or even during dry months of the year.

COPPING MECHANISMS.
• During dry/severe droughts people move with their Livestock especially big stocks towards the mountain ranges in search of pasture and water and even cross the international boarders where they loose their Livestock through the hostile Dodoth raiders making them more vulnerable.
• Old men, women and children are left behind in the camps to depend on relief food while young and energetic men drive strong stocks away and arm themselves in readiness to defend them.
• Watering is done at intervals to allow small stock to search for the little available pasture and browse.
• Sometimes communities accept slaughter de-stocking of the weak animals by NGOs and GOK.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

During the visit by a team from Ministry of Water and Irrigation, CDF staff, WRMA officer and the community leadership, the following recommendation were made:
The Hydrological survey to be carried out in the proposed project area to specify drilling point and establish depth.
• Drilling of a borehole and equipping with either Hand pump or Solar pumping equipment.
• Construction of Livestock drinking troughs or trough for both small and big stock.
• Construction of community water drawing Points.
• Elevate water storage tanks by construction of tower for the tanks as the topography of the area is flat.
• Lay distribution lines to watering points.
• Train the management committees which will be elected by the community for the sustainability of the project.

CONCLUSION
During the visit, the team realized that there is great need to provide the community with water as they are struggling to make life bearable by trying to settle along Nachuro dry river cause to accesses water from the THDWs and using their own initiatives to construct temporary shades for children to access basic education.
• Put in place small makeshift food stores.
• Creating charcoal bands to attract buyers from Lodwar.

• Construction of small bands to collect water during rains to plant subsistence crops in small scale.