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Kenya's Aquifers





In September, France-based Radar Technologies International, in collaboration with the Kenyan government and the U.N. and with funding from Japan, used satellite technology to pinpoint several aquifers. The discovery of the new aquifers in northern Kenya is welcome news for a region where much of the population does not have reliable access to drinking water and where resource scarcity has hampered economic growth. The most notable discovery during this survey was the Lotikipi Aquifer in the northwestern part of the Rift Valley. The aquifer holds an estimated 207 billion cubic meters of water and an annual recharge rate estimated at 1.2 bcm. In total, some 250 bcm were discovered, with an expected annual recharge rate of 3.4 bcm -- an amount roughly equal to 15 percent of the 21 bcm of water currently available to Kenya each year.

The Lotikipi Aquifer is located beneath the Turkana Desert, near the borders with Uganda and South Sudan. Among the poorest areas in Kenya and often plagued by drought, the region supports a primarily nomadic population. Many inhabitants lack regular access to drinking water and rely heavily on food aid. By comparison, the economic core of the country is located near the Lake Victoria and Athi basins, where roughly 60 percent of Kenya's previously known water resources sit. The sparse populations along the coast and in the north have historically been less important to the government. However, oil discoveries in Turkana in 2012 raise the prospect of some level of possible resource-based economic growth. The ready availability of significant water resources may now entice Nairobi to focus more on protecting and developing the region.

Still, initial claims that the aquifers could supply Kenya with water for the next 70 years do not take into account the constraints Nairobi will face in developing the resource. While the increased availability of groundwater could support local growth, Nairobi must use the resource in a controlled manner for it to be sustainable. Kenya will likely struggle to develop the physical infrastructure needed to efficiently utilize the aquifers, and effective resource management will prove difficult as multiple sectors compete for the new, but still limited, groundwater reserves.

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