The Water Resources Authority has invited bids to build a new batch of water pans across North Eastern Kenya, in a project aimed at storing rainwater for communities and livestock in the region’s dry spells.<\/p>\n
According to the tender, posted on October 27, the works include a 20,000-cubic-metre water pan at Goeale (Shanta Abak) in Garissa County, a pan of the same size at Kuno (Balambala) in Mandera County, and in Wajir County, a 57,000-cubic-metre pan at Tarbaj, a 20,000-cubic-metre pan at Argane, and a sand dam at Buteheul. Marsabit is also included in the batch. Bids close on December 31, 2026.<\/p>\n
The tender comes as the October to December short rains set in. The Kenya Meteorological Department has forecast above-average rainfall for Garissa, Wajir and Mandera over the season, which supplies more than 40 per cent of the region’s annual rain.<\/p>\n
That brings both opportunity and risk. The government has named Garissa as the county likely to be hardest hit by El Ni\u00f1o flooding, with up to 150,000 people potentially affected, and the county has set aside KSh113 million for early action and identified five sites in Garissa town for families who may be displaced.<\/p>\n
Water pans and sand dams are designed to capture run-off that would otherwise be lost, giving pastoralist communities water reserves for the months after the rains end.<\/p>\n
Sources: TenderYetu (WRA tender notice); Kulan Post; The Kenya Times.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Water Resources Authority has invited bids for new water pans and a sand dam across North Eastern Kenya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-eastern"],"yoast_head":"\n