Lodwar/Namoru – 7th August, 2025 (Public Communications and Media Relations)
The County Department of Water Services has hosted a delegation of three water executives from the northern frontier counties on a benchmarking visit to assess the impact of projects under the Kenya RAPID program.
The delegation, hosted by Turkana County Executive for Water Services, Willyjustus Lopeyok, included his counterparts from Isiolo – Ali Wario, Garissa – Ahmed Ibrahim, and Wajir – Abdi Mohamud. Implementing partners were also part of the team.
They held roundtable discussions with the top management of the Turkana Urban Water and Sewerage Company (TUWASCO) and visited the Namoru Water Project in Loima Sub-county. The team also visited the Nariemeto Community-Based Natural Resource Management Group in Songot Ward, Turkana West Sub-county.
The program, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, aims at building resilience in arid and semi-arid lands through increased access to water and sanitation, and improved rangeland management. It is being implemented in Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Turkana, and Wajir.
In Turkana, the implementing partner is Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which also supported TUWASCO in digitizing its billing system.
“The TUWASCO billing system has assisted in real-time data collection, accurate billing of customers, and efficient revenue management. This has restored customer confidence,” said County Executive Lopeyok during the roundtable discussion with the TUWASCO team.
In his presentation, TUWASCO Managing Director, Benedict Ekeru, said that the system had increased their revenue collection by 50%.
The Namoru Water Project involved rehabilitating a hand pump, installing a solar system, adding a water kiosk, constructing water points for a local school and for livestock, and establishing a five-acre irrigation farm. The project benefits 240 households, and 41 of these households have been allocated plots on the farm to improve family nutrition.
Eramram Losen, Secretary of the Water Users Association, said that the availability of water at the school had helped children focus on their studies as they no longer spent a lot of time queuing at the water pump.
Speaking during the community engagement session, Wajir County Water Executive, Mohamud, urged the community to pay for water services to ensure sustainability.
His Isiolo counterpart, Wario, reminded the community that the project belonged to them and advised them to take care of it. Meanwhile, Garissa County Water Executive, Ibrahim, appealed to the households with farm plots to fully utilize them to improve nutrition.
As one of the farm plot beneficiaries, Enyane Echakan said, “We were tired of going to Lodwar for vegetables. Now, we are working to ensure we grow our own.”
In her remarks, Program Director of the Millennium Water Alliance (MWA), June Samo, encouraged women to incorporate vegetables into their children’s diets to support healthy growth.
Also present in the delegation was CEO of the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC), Dr. Farah Idle, and representatives from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Kenya RAPID Program, MWA, and CARE Kenya. The County team was led by Loima Sub-county Administrator, Jackson Apenyu.
