Water in Laikipia is scarce and rivers are few and far between. Many families amongst the communities surrounding the Ol Pejeta Conservancy are forced to walk many kilometres every day to collect water from communal water sources. Often the water is unfit for human consumption, resulting in high incidences of water-born disease. While boreholes do exist they often fall into disrepair as many communities cannot afford to keep them maintained. Where rivers exist they are often over-utilized for inefficient irrigation, resulting in reduced river flows to those living downstream. Many livestock dams, designed to trap and store flood-water, are currently broken or silted up.

Ol Pejeta Conservancy's Interventions:

• Supported the implementation of the Ex-Erok water supply systems
• Waichekeheri and Ereri communities are supplied with water on daily basis from the Ol Pejeta Conservancy
• Marura and Tigithi Women’s Group received several rain water-catchment tanks
• Ol Pejeta, together with the Laikipia Wildlife Forum and the Safaricom Foundation, work to support the development of river water-users associations
• Using our own earth-moving equipment we work to de-silt and repair dams and create dry-season livestock drinking pans
• We operate a borehole rig to cost-effectively clean and repair boreholes that have fallen into disrepair. We also work to rectify and administer abandoned water schemes

If you would like to support Ol Pejeta Conservancy's Community Development Programmes, you can donate directly online or contact us at community@olpejetaconservancy.org.