Water for development in Marigat Sub County

By Henry Nyamweya

The residents of Marigat Sub - County are geared to improve their economic status very soon. The successful drilling of the borehole along the Cabernet -Marigat road meant for prosopis Juliflora (Mathenge) power generation will change the living standards of the people of Marigat town.

This will create new employment opportunities at the proposed power generation industry supported by Cummins. The local communities are expected to be employed at different levels. As a result of this, self-employment will be achieved while supplying the raw materials and economic growth.

Cummins power generation site

It is anticipated that the major beneficiaries of the project will be organized groups like Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and individuals comprising both women and men within Marigat District.

They will be supplying prosopis trees at an agreeable fee to facilitate processing power generation. This will be harvested from their farms and then transported to the factory by use of locally available means of transport.

Marigat water supply usually serves an estimated population of about 500 House-holds of about 3000 people. The current sources of water will now be boosted by the newly drilled borehole mainly for economic development for the local community.

‘’The borehole yield is 25.67m3 per hour of water during the exercise of test pumping by the available results on Friday. This was achieved by JB drilling company from Nakuru who were working on the borehole,’’ confirmed one of the team members who sought not be identified.

‘’This is the best results of ground water achievement in Marigat area at the moment, we have never gotten this much, Let us hope it is of good quality. We may need to plan on how to make meaningful use of this water,’’ said the District water Officer, Marigat District.

Water drilling at the cummins site

“It is obvious we shall succeed if we have water for the proposed Prosopis Power generation project, they did this work for about one month; they started test pumping yesterday at 1.00pm throughout the night.” Said Cecelia Chebet, one of the distant neighbors.

She excitedly reiterated that the water is very clean and children are appreciating that they will soon have safe water for drinking.

Meanwhile, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is also anticipating sinking another borehole within the same locality early next year. This is a project meant to benefit Baringo County with 100 boreholes under the survey which was carried out in 2012 by the ministry of water.