World Water Day 2024: Kenya’s Silent Crisis
By Erika Pietrzak, March 22, 2024
Women and children are especially impacted by this lack of water, having to spend up to one-third of the day getting water for their families.
Today, more than 15 million Kenyans, over 41% of the population, lack access to safe water. Between 2020 and 2022, Kenya experienced an extreme drought that saw 2.5 million cattle lost. In Kenya, over 300,000 people were displaced by environmental disasters, and 10,000 people were displaced because of environmental conflict in 2018. Kenya’s water supply sits at 647 cubic meters per capita, significantly short of the recommended 1,000 cubic meters per capita. This is estimated to drop to 235 cubic meters per capita by 2035.
The Turkana region of Northern Kenya borders Uganda, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. With Lake Turkana on the east, this is one of the most conflict-ridden areas in the country. A significant drought in the region, combined with droughts in the east of the country, has put 2.4 million people at risk of going hungry, a 3-fold increase from 2020. Exacerbated by droughts in the surrounding countries, Turkana experiences high levels of conflict over water scarcity and migrants.
Kenya today has over 40 ethnic groups within its borders. In the Turkana region, agreements between local communities are not enough to protect scarce water resources because people coming from bordering countries, described as “enemies” by Kenyans in the region, do not have any commitments to these agreements, making getting water from these sources more dangerous. With growth rates of almost 3% per year in the region, the booming population makes these conflicts more likely and the need for reliable water sources more urgent. Rapid urbanization and uneven water distribution have left almost 50% of Kenya’s rural areas of impoverished communities to suffer from dehydration while 85% of Kenyans in urban areas have access to safe water. Without the ability to pay for new piping or fountains, impoverished communities, especially those involved in the informal sector, are experiencing higher rates of violence due to water scarcity.
One reason for the increase of environmental conflict in the region is the scarcity of available pasture and water, which has forced agricultural workers to search for new areas, increasing contact with other groups. This contact is particularly an issue with growing resentment for wealthy landowners who hold private ownership over vast areas of succulent land that poorer farmers cannot access. As a result of this scarcity, particularly young men are forced into violence to make ends meet financially. The scarcity of water has implications for health, economics, education, and many other aspects of life that create tensions that produce conflict in Kenya.
Women and children are especially impacted by this lack of water, having to spend up to one-third of the day getting water for their families. This has caused girls to disproportionately drop out of school in a country with already significant gender gaps in society and its economy. The water retrieved is also often dangerous to drink as it is contaminated with oil, fertilizer, and deadly pathogens like cholera and parasitic worms.
Only 9 of 55 public water service providers have continuously safe water supplies, making kiosks, vendors, and illegal connections the common route for accessing clean water. Want to help make a change? Donate and share to help the people of Sokoni Primary School and its villages, who currently walk 7km to the nearest water source, get access to clean water through its own kiosk: Water Kiosk at Sokoni Primary School in Kenya (gofundme.com)
Change The Chamber is a nonpartisan coalition of over 100 student groups, including undergraduates, graduate students and recent graduates.