A model farmer in Ayabi Sub County pumping water from his dam.
Residents of Odalowang in Ayabi Sub County in Kwania District have failed to utilize the Shillings 2 billion dam constructed by the government in 2017. The World Bank-funded dam was meant to provide water to the farmers for irrigation in the dry season to boost production.
However, local leaders say that even the communities neighboring the dam have never used it. John Omara, a model farmer in the area, says that farmers were not sensitized about the benefit of the dam.
“Farmers have continued to suffer the effects of climate change yet the dam was constructed to mitigate the same. The problem is that farmers were not sensitized on the benefit of this dam,” he said.
Richard Eluk, the Ayabi Sub County LC III chairperson, says the dam has been abandoned.
Eluk blames the abandonment of the dam on the lack of sensitization of the targeted beneficiaries. He however appealed to the government to rehabilitate the dam to boost production and fight poverty.
Beja Tom Richard, the Ayabi Sub County Chief, says that some residents vandalized and stole the generator and water palm that was installed in the dam. Johnson Ojok Ocen, the Kwania District Production Coordinator dismissed claims that the farmers were never sensitized. Ojok explains that they conducted sufficient training on cage fishing but the project failed due to the negligence of the local leaders.
Kwania District LC V Chairman, Geoffrey Alex Ogwal Adyebo who doubles as the Secretary of Production and Marketing pledged to follow up on the matter to ascertain why the dam was not put to good use. “My committee will take up the matter and investigate why the dam was abandoned and forge the ways forward,” he said.
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