Lodwar – 21st August, 2025 (Public Communications and Media Relations)

Water and sanitation stakeholders have drafted the County Water and Sanitation Strategy and Investment Plan for the Kenya Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Program (K-WASH) project which aims to improve access to clean water and sanitation across the county.

K-WASH is a six-year initiative (2024–2030), funded by the World Bank and the National Government, targeting 19 arid and semi-arid counties including Turkana.

Speaking during the opening of the three-day workshop, Chief Officer for Water Services, Mark Achilla, urged participants to develop a strategy that would ensure Turkana County was at par with the rest of the targeted counties.

“According to the Project Operations Manual, the county strategy is eligible for Sh130 million from the World Bank,” he said, highlighting the importance of the strategy in kicking off the project’s implementation.

Chief Officer for Medical Services, Dr Gilchrist Lokoel, urged participants to acknowledge that Turkana required unique solutions to its sanitation challenges.

“Sanitation in Turkana requires innovations not the cut and paste of the traditional classroom knowledge,” he said.

He highlighted that each population – nomadic pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, fisherfolk and urban/pre-urban – required their own customized solutions and municipalities’ invest in a sewage system to reduce the construction of septic tanks.

Director for Water Services, Paul Lotum, stated that the strategy would be seeking to address the gaps in water service provision and sanitation improvement. 

While the County K-WASH Coordinator, Tito Ochieng, said that the strategy would focus on the “last mile” that is bringing improved water access and sanitation closer to individuals/households.

The stakeholders were drawn from county departments of health and environment and partner representatives from UNHCR, UNICEF Kenya, Department of Refugee Services, National Ministry of Education and Israid.