GARISSA (Halbeeg News) – The county government of Garissa has announced that they will construct irrigation schemes and dams to mitigate damage from recurrent flooding along River Tana.
A technical team assigned by the governor has started plans to set up irrigation schemes at Rahole, Hone, Fafi, Dagega, Gababa and Abalatiro.
The team included the chief officer for Irrigation Abdullahi Osman and Yussuf Noor, the county director of Irrigation has said that the proposed construction of the dams are meant to take advantage of the floodwaters to spur smallholder agriculture and boost food security in the county.
The representatives from the team have made presentations during a stakeholders’ consultative forum for the draft National Irrigation Services Strategy for Garissa, Wajir and Mandera which was held at Garissa University.
“We want our views captured in this key document so we can take advantage of the Sh1.6 trillion package it comes with, which we can tap and use to build the infrastructure we need to bring this programme to fruition,” Osman said.
“We have the potential to irrigate about 32,000 acres, but currently we do about 5,000 acres. This project will enable us to scale up our numbers and, most importantly, open up new areas for agriculture and irrigation and bring relief from flooding for residents and farmers downstream.”
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