A New Way to Help Prevent Disaster in Kenya

Kenya is home to 41 million people, with about 17 million going without access to safe drinking water. And in any area, let alone one with such a large and growing population, it goes without saying that that is really, really problematic. In an area that is already dry and arid, this problem is intensified when droughts start occurring.

Citizens of Turkana County, Kenya wait in line at a relief center

Difficulties surrounding water safety (such as purifying water) and security (like making sure there is enough water for everyone) have been a recurring prominent problem in Africa, and with the increasing climate change, water has become a growing concern not just in other less developed countries, but in more developed ones as well.

However, Kenya has found a new resource that can help them to tackle these droughts and potentially even prevent future ones. The discovery of this resource was helped by advanced satellite exploration technology (specifically, a groundwater mapping project) under the name of GRIDMAP (Groundwater Resources Investigation for Drought Mitigation in Africa Programme), headed by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in partnership with the government of Kenya and with the financial support of the government of Japan. This technology “combines remote sensing, seismic and conventional groundwater information to explore and map groundwater occurrence over large areas in short periods of time”, according to the UNESCO’s website article on the subject.

Drilling to confirm the aquifers

The resources they discovered were confirmed locations of two very large aquifers (the Lotikipi Basin Aquifer and the Lodwar Basin Aquifer) underground that have been collecting water from rain that falls in Kenya. These two sources could prove to completely change the country’s continuous water safety issues and provide relief during droughts. Though the water found in these aquifers still need to be assessed and tested, this is still a huge step forward and I believe that even if the water is currently unsafe to drink from directly, I’m sure there every effort will be made to use this water in some way to help the people of Kenya and decrease water-related deaths.

I believe this discovery is important and related to environmental hazards because it provides a good example of people knowing that there is a problem occurring and although there may not be an immediate solution, they are working to provide future generations a way to combat and even prevent future hazards. One of the reasons why the discoveries of these aquifers is so exciting is because of the potential to create underground irrigations systems that can run through the country and provide water to crops and drinking water for livestock. So not only could this help with droughts but other disasters as well, such as famine. Hopefully we can find other such resources around the world. 

CNN Reports the Discovery
NYTimes on the New Water Resource
UNESCO on the Aquifers in Kenya