Davis and Shirtliff, the water and renewable energy equipment supplier, will bring the water to the surface, potentially turning the arid region into a food basket.
Hydrologists project the 250 billion cubic metres of water discovered in September on the foot of Mt Mogila in Lotikipi, along the Kenya-South Sudan border could meet Kenya’s water needs for 70 years.
Contractors would start by equipping one of the boreholes that had been sunk earlier to enable the locals start using the water as early as next month.
Drilling for water from a vast aquifer found in Turkana County last year is set to start Wednesday.
Davis and Shirtliff, the water and renewable energy equipment supplier, will bring the water to the surface, potentially turning the arid region into a food basket.
“Work on the site is set to start tomorrow (Wednesday) morning and we expect to have finished four boreholes by the end of the year,” said the Rift Valley Water Service Board chief executive Japheth Mutai.
Hydrologists project the 250 billion cubic metres of water discovered in September on the foot of Mt Mogila in Lotikipi, along the Kenya-South Sudan border could meet Kenya’s water needs for 70 years. Kenya’s annual water consumption stands at three billion cubic metres.
Mr Mutai said that the contractors would start by equipping one of the boreholes that had been sunk earlier to enable the locals start using the water as early as next month.
He said the cost of water would drop significantly as solar energy would be used to pumping the water to overhead tanks from where it would flow by gravity to designated points.
“The fact that we will be using sun as the source of energy in pumping water, then we expect the residents pay less as compared to other towns in the country,” he said.
According to Mr Mutai, the households who will opt to buy water from the vendors will pay Sh2 for a 20 litre jerrican, initially, down from Sh30 they currently pay.
By the end of the year, the project is expected to have cost Sh1 billion but the government has committed Sh50 million to the ongoing works.
Director of water resources John Rao Nyaoro said that the ministry targeted to use only 70 per cent of the 3.4 billion cubic metres that can be fetched annually from the self-recharging underground water reservoir.
“We want as much as we can to try and use the recharge while maintaining the water that has been there,” he said.
Mr Nyaoro said that 15,000 acres of land in Lodwar had been earmarked for irrigation using water from the aquifer which covers a surface area of 4,164 square kilometres.
The Lotikipi aquifer is located between Lokichogio and Lokitaung. The other aquifer is 16 kilometres from Lodwar and is partly fed by the Turkwel River.
A scientist who led the discovery of the large aquifers has called for caution in the drilling of water wells, saying overexploitation could lead to depletion.
“There is a need to ensure a balance between the reserves and the amount of water that is being recharged. It is just like your bank account — if you take out more money than you have then you will become bankrupt,” Radar Technologies International president Alain Gachet said when the water was discovered.
Dr Gachet said that rainfall patterns, especially in the central highlands and those in Uganda believed to feed the aquifers, should be monitored keenly.
Radar Technologies had been contracted by Unesco to conduct an advanced survey of ground water resources in northern and central areas of Turkana County.
The survey found deep-seated water systems in Kachoda, Gatome, Nkalale and Lockichar, with the largest aquifer being located in Lotikipi.
Radar Technologies’s WATEX system uses satellite imaging to accurately identify places that can be drilled for wells with the most chances of success, reducing wastage of resources.
The system was developed in 2004 and has since been used to identify water in semi-arid areas of Angola, Chad, Darfur and Afghanistan.
Dr Gachet also called for joint research between water and oil companies in Turkana to establish how exploitation of one could affect the other.
“Oil will naturally be found above the water and drilling could affect the water tables. Both resources are vital to transforming the livelihoods of Turkana people,” he said.
Although the recharge in the Turkana aquifer is adequate to supply the whole country, the distance and the terrain could make this difficult.
