Residents of Turkana have been urged to take advantage of the ongoing rains to harvest and use rainwater for domestic and agricultural production.

Director for Water Services, Paul Lotum said the residents of Turkana shouldn’t waste rainwater at the time much is expected during the El-nino.

He said this during the closure of a two-day workshop on groundwater management organized by the Regional Centre for Ground Water Resource (RCGWR).

“It is true that underground aquifers are the principal source of Water for Turkana. However, the source is negatively affected by climate change and pollution arising from human activities.

It is time households consider rainwater harvesting to supplement existing sources.” Lotum said.

On the need to protect aquifers, he stated, that the fencing of the Napuu aquifer is a protection and conservation measure of the water source.

On the same, the Director has called on residents to desist from encroaching into the aquifer.

The Water Director also called on RCGWR to adopt a partnership model with Turkana that would facilitate information sharing on groundwater mapping and research.

The meeting exposed staff to manage aquifer recharge for sustainable abstraction of water, modern technology, and approaches to water resource mapping. And the necessity of laboratory tests of water samples before human consumption was also critical to them.