Lodwar – 9th September, 2025 (Public Communications and Media Relations)

County Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) stakeholders has held a consultative workshop that identified and documented the barriers affecting the delivery of WASH services across Turkana County.

The five-day workshop, supported by the Lotus Kenya Action for Development Organization (LOKADO) with funding from Welthungerhilfe Kenya, focused on key thematic areas: water access, sanitation, governance, non-revenue water, and health promotion. Participants were expected to conduct a barrier analysis and propose solutions.

Speaking during the workshop, Director of WASH Services – Kalobeyei Integrated Socio-Economic Development Programme (KISEDP) Godfrey Ikone Akolong, emphasized the need to strengthen coordination between water and health stakeholders to address some of systemic issues to unlock barriers including financial constraints.

“One of the key barriers is non-revenue water which accounts for over 50 percent. However, an assessment of the commercial and physical losses must be conducted to inform the development of targeted solutions,” he said.

He stressed the importance of implementing WASH interventions as an integrated package, particularly at the sub-county level. A health and water sectors’ join workplan, he said, would help “unlock and address long-standing systemic barriers.”

Key challenges discussed included the lack of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for staff and contractors/suppliers and municipality by-laws, as well as inadequate staff capacity and policy frameworks to support compliance and the enforcement of penalties.

According to Dennis Esekon Lokitare, Programme Manager at LOKADO, an increase in budgetary allocation to Water Service Providers (WSPs) was required to support policy development and enforcement.

“However, budgetary allocations should not be the only source of revenue. Customer remittances should also be enforced, but currently, there is no law to hold people accountable for illegal connections,” he said.

The WSPs, fully owned by the County Government, referred were Turkana Rural Water and Sanitation Company, Turkana Urban Water and Sewerage Company, and the Kakuma Lopur and Letea Water and Sanitation Company.

The stakeholders resolved to share findings of the workshop to the two County Assembly Committees responsible for the Health and Water Services. Similarly, senior county officials from the sectors will be invited.

The workshop was attended by key partners, including the Water Resources Authority and International Rescue Committee, and representatives from County Directorates of Water and Health, alongside WSPs.