ChildFund installed this water well in Samburu County, Kenya, in August of 2021 as part of its emergency drought response. It serves 310 households with clean drinking water, as well as water for small gardens and livestock. Previously, when children and families could access water, they were drawing it from a dirty river that was a thirty minute walk away and a cause of sickness in the community. Even that option dried up during the 2021 drought when the annual rains failed to come. ChildFund responded just in time to bring fresh, life-giving water to this community.Quotes from child in the community, Risalo (female, age 12, not pictured):“We were getting water from the river,” says Risalo. “During the rainy season the water was dirty. Some people would get sick from waterborne diseases, such as cholera. It’s not clean. To get to the river is very difficult. We used to drink it because there was nothing otherwise. One day I drank that water and it was so muddy. When I came back home I started suffering from stomach pain and I had diarrhea. During the dry season you have dig. You have to dig the ground to drink water.”“The water is now helping the community and we say thank you to ChildFund and Nawiri Child Development Programme (ChildFund’s local partner in Samburu). The water is near to us. It comes very fast and the water volume is high. It takes just one second [to fill up]. Every day I think I fetch four jerrycans. That is enough for us. My new water from ChildFund tastes very good. Some people also grow crops and it’s easy for them to water their crops with this water.”ChildFund Kenya – drought response.
September 30, 2021. Photo by Jake Lyell.
The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said the number of children facing severe drought across the Horn of Africa has increased by more than 40 per cent within two months.
UNICEF said that between February and April, the number of children facing the impact of drought including acute hunger, malnutrition, and thirst increased from 7.25 million to at least 10 million.
The UN agency has revised its emergency appeal from 119 million dollars to nearly 250 million dollars to reflect the growing need across the region.
According to UNICEF, more than 1.7 million children across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia require urgent treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
It warned that if rains fell in the coming weeks, the number of children that would require urgent treatment for severe acute malnutrition in the three countries would rise to two million.
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