Water is an essential part of life and without it, I bet several productive processes would get minimal, if not stop completely.
Villages around Maseno University; Nyawita, Emabungo and Sunrise, just but to mention a few have been hit by water shortages. The value of water has shot as if it were being compared to the dollar.
Things were not the same a few months back; there was plenty of water
in almost every homestead. Residents would easily share their water
freely with other members of the community.
We meet mzee Charles, one of the owners of students' hostels near car wash area and he explains why he thinks this is happening.
"This is a dry season. Since I started living here, I can say it is the worst ever", he says. "It is very dry and I think the water levels have gone down, making it hard for wells to produce enough water to sustain all of us", he adds.
Students living in Charles' Rispers hostel say that they have to endure the pain of looking for water from other places as there is little water in the well.
"An average of 25 students live here but we can get at most around 50 litres of clean water from the well", says Steven Mwangi, a student living at the Rispers hostel. He adds that he is forced to stay awake for long hours during the night just to wait for little water that accumulates in the well so that he can at least save some for a shower.
If the dryness continues for a month from now, Mwangi says that perhaps all the wells in the area would go dry.
He goes ahead to complain of the unpalatable water from the nearby stream. "We can not draw water from this stream since it is contaminated by sewage from the Varsity", he says.
Many residents have now opted to buying water from different points. One twenty-litres jerrycan of water goes for Ksh 5 but if it is to be delivered to one's doorstep, then one can pay between Ksh 10-20 depending on the distance the 'supplier' has to cover before reaching one's place of residence.
At Pink House hostel in Nyawita, the underground tank that stores rainwater has been dry since January. "Since we opened school, there has been no drop of water in the tank", says a male student,resident.
He says that he nowadays walks a distance of close to 800 metres to the institution just to get drinking water; leave alone for washing and bathing.
"It is very difficult to survive without water", he laments adding that the distance he covers to get water is very long and if water were available near his place of residence, he says that perhaps he could use the time he spends looking for water to do something creative and important.
With the changing weather seasons that are being witnessed across the country, residents here are just living on hope that soon, God will listen to their prayers and send them rain.
(Tired of being sidelined by the mainstream media? Click Here to get stories from your County)
Villages around Maseno University; Nyawita, Emabungo and Sunrise, just but to mention a few have been hit by water shortages. The value of water has shot as if it were being compared to the dollar.
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| This is the entrance to the Rispers hostel at car wash area near Maseno University. It is just a representation of the many hostels hit by water shortages. [Photo/Kisabuli Caleb] |
We meet mzee Charles, one of the owners of students' hostels near car wash area and he explains why he thinks this is happening.
"This is a dry season. Since I started living here, I can say it is the worst ever", he says. "It is very dry and I think the water levels have gone down, making it hard for wells to produce enough water to sustain all of us", he adds.
Students living in Charles' Rispers hostel say that they have to endure the pain of looking for water from other places as there is little water in the well.
"An average of 25 students live here but we can get at most around 50 litres of clean water from the well", says Steven Mwangi, a student living at the Rispers hostel. He adds that he is forced to stay awake for long hours during the night just to wait for little water that accumulates in the well so that he can at least save some for a shower.
If the dryness continues for a month from now, Mwangi says that perhaps all the wells in the area would go dry.
He goes ahead to complain of the unpalatable water from the nearby stream. "We can not draw water from this stream since it is contaminated by sewage from the Varsity", he says.
Many residents have now opted to buying water from different points. One twenty-litres jerrycan of water goes for Ksh 5 but if it is to be delivered to one's doorstep, then one can pay between Ksh 10-20 depending on the distance the 'supplier' has to cover before reaching one's place of residence.
At Pink House hostel in Nyawita, the underground tank that stores rainwater has been dry since January. "Since we opened school, there has been no drop of water in the tank", says a male student,resident.
He says that he nowadays walks a distance of close to 800 metres to the institution just to get drinking water; leave alone for washing and bathing.
"It is very difficult to survive without water", he laments adding that the distance he covers to get water is very long and if water were available near his place of residence, he says that perhaps he could use the time he spends looking for water to do something creative and important.
With the changing weather seasons that are being witnessed across the country, residents here are just living on hope that soon, God will listen to their prayers and send them rain.
(Tired of being sidelined by the mainstream media? Click Here to get stories from your County)
