A Desperate Need for Water for Refugees in Turkana, Kenya
Reviving Water Systems for Refugees in Kenya
Thanks to your faithful support of the ministry, this year Water Mission began a large-scale initiative to serve refugees in desperate need of reliable water in Kenya’s arid Turkana region. In Kakuma refugee camp and Kalobeyei refugee settlement, fragile infrastructure and broken water systems cannot keep up with the growing population’s water needs. Women and girls walk for hours to find a running tap, or they attempt to collect dirty water from the seasonal river. Unless it has recently rained, they must dig into the sand of the dry riverbed to reach any water.
The good news is that there is enough water for everyone—it just needs to be properly pumped, treated, and distributed. Water Mission has the technical expertise to do just that. Our engineers have begun a comprehensive assessment of the 20+ water systems that are currently in place. The most common problems that we have found include undersized pumps, solar arrays that were not designed properly and don't provide adequate power (there is no grid power in this region), boreholes with major construction issues, pipes that were not sized properly (they are too small in diameter), and pipes that were not buried leaving them susceptible premature failure and illegal taps. After we finish the assessment, we will transition into designing and implementing solutions with the capacity to serve every man, woman, and child in the camp. One such person anxiously awaiting this blessing of reliable access to safe water is Safi, a mother of six in Kakuma refugee camp.
“People Are Suffering:” Safi’s Story of Motherhood Amidst Water Scarcity
Safi lives in Kakuma refugee camp with her husband and six children. She left Congo in 2013 when her home was attacked and family members killed. “I was not able to do any packing,” Safi says. “I just grabbed my child and my handbag that had [the equivalent of 25 U.S. cents] and my identification.” It took Safi’s family a month to reach Kakuma refugee camp, hiding from the men who had attacked their home and facing robbers along the road. Once they finally arrived, she found that the large refugee population and limited resources meant that even people’s most basic needs were often unmet. “The water is scarce in Kakuma,” Safi explains, “so people are suffering.”
Safi carries a five-gallon (20-liter) jerrycan weighing nearly 50 pounds—and her baby—on her two-hour round-trip walk for water. The water she carries is not nearly enough for her family. In comparison, American families use an average of 300 gallons of water per day. “Because it is quite a distance and exhausting, I only make two trips, just for [water for] drinking and cooking. We don’t have enough for washing and bathing, [but] babies need to be cleaned often. Once they are fed, they soil their diapers, so…this is a challenge.”
Safi anxiously awaits the day when Water Mission gets water flowing to families in her village of the camp. “I will have water for hygiene, bathing, and washing the children’s clothes. I can get water for gardening, plant my vegetables, and sell them at the market to buy food for the house…and [afford] shoes for my kids to wear to school.” Thank you for living out Christ’s call to bless those in need, like Safi and her family. Safi knows that all thanks ultimately belong to the Lord. Even after all the hardship she has endured, she says, “I want to thank God. He is my protector.”
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