Underground water resevoir found in drought-hit Kenya

Scientists in Kenya have found a vast underground water reservoir in one of Kenya’s driest region that could supply the region for the next 70 years.

The Kenyan government and Unesco announced the discovery of the huge supply of underground water in the impoverished, drought-stricken extreme north of the country.

The find, made using advanced satellite exploration technology and backed by Unesco drilling, was hailed as a breakthrough that could radically change the lives of the 500,000 people living in the region. Close to half of Kenya’s 41m people have no access to clean water.

Two aquifers — underground layers of permeable rock or silt soaked in water — were found in the Turkana region, the scene of a devastating drought two years ago that aid workers said pushed malnutrition rates up to 37%.

“The news about these water reserves comes at a time when reliable water supplies are highly needed,” said Judi Wakhungu, cabinet secretary in the Kenyan ministry of environment, water, and natural resources.

“This newly found wealth of water opens a door to a more prosperous future for the people of Turkana and the nation as a whole. We must now work to further explore these resources responsibly and safeguard them for future generations.”

The firm which carried out the survey, Radar Technologies International (RTI), said the area hosts a minimum reserve of 250bn cubic metres of water, which is recharged at a rate of 3.4bn cubic metres per year — almost equivalent to annual water consumption in Austria.

“Hundreds of thousands of livestock die because of recurring droughts. This won’t happen anymore,” RTI president Alain Gachet said. “We’ve just doubled the country’s drinking water reserves.”

RTI said the largest find — the Lotikipi Basin Aquifer, located west of Lake Turkana — was roughly the size of the US state of Rhode Island.

The smaller Lodwar Basin Aquifer, meanwhile, could feed the parched regional capital of Lodwar — although Unesco cautioned that water quality still needed to be assessed.