End of thirsty walks

For years, the residents of Ramole village in Sololo, Marsabit County—a semi-arid region—have endured the burden of walking long distances in search of clean water for their households. During droughts, this vital resource becomes so scarce that transporting it to their homes often relies on donkeys. Those without donkeys face the daunting task of carrying heavy containers on their backs, underscoring the community’s daily struggle to access water.

However, this struggle has become a thing of the past for a section of Ramole residents who now have water points close to their homes. One of these water points have an installed prepaid meter where each resident pays for water upfront using their tokens, similar to the prepaid electricity token users. The innovation also incorporates a mini-reverse osmosis system, a process that removes salts from water to reduce its salinity, ensuring that users receive clean, desalinated water directly from the tap.

Qabale Mohamed is one of the residents here. She says that she uses ten containers of water every day and getting the same quantity of water far away was not only time-consuming but also tiresome. This makes the water token kiosk a convenient water source for her.

“My baby is seven months old, and that means that as a mother, I cannot be away from him for a long period of time. That is why I am happy having a clean source of water close to my house,” Ms Mohamed tells Climate Action.

Ms Mohamed, like her neighbours without donkeys, had to carry a 20-litre water container on her back and trek home from the water point. Each day, she spent up to ten hours, from morning to evening, fetching the same amount of water. However, she now completes the task in less than two hours, allowing her more time to care for her baby and attend to other responsibilities.

“This water kiosk was accessible when I was pregnant and that saved me from the struggles of going for water far away. Walking a long distance while carrying water on my back when pregnant could have landed me into health problems,” Ms Mohamed tells Climate Action.

According to the Kenya Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development (RAPID+), the programme that supported the rehabilitation of the Ramole community borehole and introduced the automated meter, the borehole water is pumped to an elevated tank that has a capacity of 108, 000 litres.

The kiosk has a mini-reverse osmosis system that removes salinity and bacteria from water, thus making it safe for domestic use. This is according to George Ralak, the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene technical advisor who is also the project lead for the RAPID+ in Marsabit County for Food for the Hungry.

“This is an improved source of water because there have been measures to ensure there is no contact between the water and the environment where it could be contaminated. The borehole water goes into a tank through a pipe which is enclosed, and from the tank, it goes through the kiosk, so the first point of contact with water is where somebody fetches it,” says Mr Ralak.

Halkano Guyo, the water management committee chairman in the region says that Ramole is a residential area with about 600 households. Of this, about two hundred households have the water token chips which they keep in their houses. When they go to the water point, they connect without waiting for an attendant to attend to them so they just fetch the water and return to their homes. He explains that the pre-paid token system has significantly reduced waiting times, ensuring residents no longer have to endure long queues.

“This water meter token has brought a significant change because people used to walk in search of the water and carry it on their back, now they have water here in Ramole where they just step from their homes and get water in less than 200 meters,” Mr Guyo shares.
Food for the Hungry Kenya, in partnership with the county government of Marsabit and Ramole Community, implemented the installation of the prepaid meter and mini-reverse osmosis system early last year.

Anytime a customer needs to top up tokens, they present the prepaid token machine to a water kiosk attendant who receives the money in cash. He then keys the amount in the token machine which gets deducted each time they buy water depending on the quantity one fetches.

“This technology is beneficial because, with the token, we do not have water going to waste. Right now it is the machine that does the work, and the water is safe to drink because we also have time when we clean the tank to ensure its safety,” explains Mr Guyo.

His sentiments are echoed by Fatuma Wario, a member of the water management committee, who says that having an automated water machine is a milestone for the residents who now consume clean water.

“Most women in this town do a lot of work. They take care of children, fetch water and firewood. When there is no water, children go to school without eating because their mothers have to go look for water from early morning and sometimes they come back in the evening without water,” Ms Wario says.

When we drove to Ramata dam, we found many people fetching water on one side with donkeys drinking from the same source though from the far end. This, despite the dam having been fenced.

Ms Wario says that a 20 litre container of water at the Ramole water kiosk costs Sh5 while for containers, each being a 20 litre container from the dam goes for Sh10. She hopes that the dam can also get a prepaid water token technology and allow the committee to collect more revenue that can build another borehole to ensure the entire population can afford clean and safe water for their domestic uses.

“We would like to have water from the dam passing through a water token as well. That will also help us to enhance water hygiene so that human beings don’t have to share water with livestock,” adds Ms Wario.
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