The Water Services Department’s achievements since the advent of devolution in 2013 have been summarized by the table below:

From the inception of the new dispensation in 2013, the County has made tremendous strides in the provision of water accessibility. We inherited only 69 existing boreholes, and today the county has 198 functioning boreholes translating to an additional 129 boreholes.

In 2013, the county had no existing earth pan/ dam (60,000M3 and above). Today the county has 38 dams.

Small medium pans / dams (>/=10,000M3) had increased from 86 in 2013 to 206 by end of 2020 translating to an additional 120 dams.

Infiltration Galleries & Protected Wells had increased from15 in 2013 to 24 by end of 2020 translating to an additional 9 Infiltration Galleries & Protected Wells.

UGTs/ “Berkads” had increased from 90 in 2013 to 230 by end of 202 translating to an additional 140 UGTs/ “Berkads”.

Therefore, the total number of water sources increased from 260 n 2013 to 679 translating to an additional 436 water sources

The county had only one Urban W/Supplies in 2013.  By the end of 2020, the county established an additional 4 urban water supplies.

Rural W/Supplies had increased from67 in 2013 to 118 by end of 2020 translating to an additional 51 Rural W/Supplies.

The Institutional W/Supplies had increased from 2 in 2013 to 7 by end of 2020 translating to an additional 5 Institutional W/Supplies.

40 dams have been desilted within the financial year 2020/2021

Therefore, the total number of Operational Water Supplies increased from 70 in 2013 to translating to an additional 60 water sources

As a result of the above achievements made by the County Government and its partners over the past seven and a half (7.5) years: –

• The percentage of the County’s population being served through water trucking was reduced from 36% in 2013 to 15% by the end of 2019,
• The population of rural population with access to safe and reliable water services increased from 6% in 2013 to 69.4% by December 2019 while,
• The population of urban population with access to safe and reliable water services similarly increased from 3% in 2013 to 36.4% by the end of November 2020  and,
• The total population of the County with reasonable access to safe and reliable water services increased from 46% in 2013 to 67.8% by November 2020

Responding to Droughts

The strategy of Mandera County government in the water sector is to implement a short term drought emergency water supply which involves provision of water through water trucking, rapid response maintenance and the repair and rehabilitation of boreholes while implementing long term resilience building efforts such as drilling and equipping of boreholes and the construction and rehabilitation of major pans.

In order to effectively respond to all reported borehole breakdowns within 24 hours, we have positioned two rapid response maintenance teams which are based at Elwak and Mandera respectively to help reduce the time lag between the time when a breakdown occurs, its repair and restoration of supply.

To mitigate the suffering of our people, the county Government has hired additional 31 water bowsers in order to ensure there will be uninterrupted supply of water to trucking centers to compliment seven trucks owned by the county.

We have responded to drought emergency by drilling and equipping of emergency bore- holes over the last five months. A total of 75 boreholes were drilled of which 51 were successful. The last 10 of the 51 boreholes are in the final stage of being equipped.

We have carried out desilting of 35 strategic water pans which were heavily silted in preparation of the long rains. We have deployed Ward Water officers to the 30 wards to coordinate emergency response to water distress.

Currently there are 312 water trucking centers distributed as follows;

• Mandera East: 6,
• Arabia: 8,
• Lafey: 29,
• Mandera North: 30,
• Banisa: 65,
• Mandera West: 106,
• Kutulo: 15,
• Mandera South: 22
• Kiliwehiri:

We have also provided portable plastic water storage tanks in strategic locations as part of the response mechanisms. However, we still have huge gaps and we request partners to complement our interventions. All these efforts are geared towards meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 6 of clean water and sanitation which is critical for the survival of our livestock and people in Mandera County.

Lighting the Streets

• 2,685 solar powered streetlights has been suc- cessfully installed in all the seven sub-county headquarters, (Mandera Town 920, Elwak Town 327, Takaba Town 327, Rhamu Town 270, Banisa Town 250, Lafey Town 250, Kutulo Kutulo town 160, Marothile/ Ashabito town 100 and Khalalio 31)
• Maintenance of 413 Solar street lights, 313 in Elwak town and 100 in Mandera town
• 21 high mast security Solar floodlights installed in strategic places in Mandera Municpality
• 50No, 10m high Solar lights along B9 road
• Six high mast security AC power floodlights installed in strategic places in Mandera town
• Stand-alone solar powered systems installed in 10 public institutions including schools, dispensaries and offices.
• In Partnership with REA we have established solar Mini-grid station in six ward headquar- ters one in every Sub-County i.e Arabia, Gari, Ashabito, Buruduras, Shimbir Fatuma and Kiliwahiri.
• In progress Kenya Off-grid Solar Access Project (KOSAP) World Bank funded project has al identified in partnership with the County, 32 centres to develop solar mini-grid station. The site survey and design has been done and awaiting the projects to kick off soon.

Greening Mandera County

We have aggressively implemented afforestation programme with over 250,000 tree seedlings were planted, nurtured and maintained across the county. The Programme covered the following areas; A13 Road/Major Street within Mandera Town, KMTC, MTTI, County HQ, Proposed County HQ, Moi Stadium, Ministry of Water Compound, Mandera Secondary School, Mandera Teachers Training College

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