Lodwar- July 2, 2025 (Public Communication and Media Relations)

Health facilities in rural Turkana benefitted from assessment aimed at inclusion in a program designed to strengthen healthcare systems against vulnerabilities arising from climate shocks in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL).

The assessment, jointly conducted by County Government and Center for Humanitarian Change (CHC), is part of a wider resilience building scheme to strengthen capacity of rural facilities against climate shocks, boost safety of rural water supply systems, improve nutrition and sanitation outcomes, and facilitate livelihood diversification.

Prior to the exercise, the CHC delegation paid a courtesy call to the Office of the Deputy Governor, Dr. John Erus.

The DG said that the entire spectrum of education, health and water systems would benefit immensely from the huge research experience on climate proofing brought on board by the CHC.

“As a county, we are happy to work with CHC, a research-based institutions since data informed approaches applied by the institute often leads to credible outcomes,” DG Erus said.

Noting that Turkana had witnessed losses from climatic variations that brought about heavy rains leading to floods, destruction, and severe drought. DG Erus emphasised that the assessment was timely and would help service providers adopt more proactive measures in executing their work.

CHC team led by Dr Anne Khisa noted that data collected through the program would be used to develop frameworks for action for county and national government future programs on health and climate change initiatives.

Additionally, County and CHC team interacted with communities at Kakwanyang and shared plans for climate-change-related disease outbreak anticipation.