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“When there is rain, there is life. The land is green, the animals are healthy and there is plenty of milk. But now, the children drink strong tea (without milk),” Dhahaba lamented. “The children used to eat meat and milk. Now there is no meat, no milk,” she reminisces.

She has come from “Bhadhia” meaning ‘in the grazing bush’ or ‘bushy plains’ where nomadic Somali pastoral-ist live and move around as they keep their livestock. She is pregnant with her 7th, adding on to the six chil-dren she already has, ages 2 to 14 years. Meet Dhahaba, about 37 years old. She has come to Abdi Waqo borehole, about an hour walk from where she lives. Everywhere is dusty and brown except for the trees, which are mostly dry shrubs. Abdi Waqo borehole is the only water source in a radius of about 24 km (11 miles) especially this time of drought. When it rains, some villagers use ponds that collect surface water but soon those dry up.

Dhahaba informs us that she is going to get home at about 4pm from the walk with her donkey cart, carrying nine, 4-gallon con-tainers of water that will last her two days. “The water will be used for cooking, cleaning the children, washing clothes, I’ll give some to the weak cows and goats that cannot trek to the borehole,” she shared. Her livestock will come the following day to drink in the borehole. This is the only water source here, the only alternative there is. Dhahaba has remained in a village called Eyyrib for about 2 years, since the livestock cannot migrate far due to lack of pasture. They will stay in Eyyrib until the rains come, whenever it will come. They have not seen any rain for the last 2 years. Once the rains come, the pastures will come and they can move to new pasturelands as their nomadic life dictates.

World Vision, through the Kenya Resilient Arid lands Program for Integrated Development (Kenya RAPID), in partnership with others, is rehabilitating (fix pumps, extend pipeline) and enhancing the Abdi Waqo bore-hole’s water pumping capacity by installing solar and a generator powered pump. World Vision has also in-stalled distribution pipeline to the small town and a line to the school, about 2 km away. There are 3 collection kiosks strategically located in the small town. According to Joseph Egesa, the World vision Kenya RAPID project manager, the school children in Abdi Waqo are also remaining in school because of the borehole.