In 2013, M-Pesa Foundation in partnership with Kenya Red Cross and Kwale County government rehabilitated the Nyalani dam, and encouraged residents to embrace crop farming. The dam had been built in 1952 by the British Colonial government but challenging climatic conditions and poor maintenance had made it degenerate.
The giant reservoir with a water storage capacity of approximately 500 million litres is now a source of water for irrigation, domestic as well as for livestock. Thanks to the project, farming is thriving. The community no longer relies on rain and dry spells do not mean doom for their crops anymore.
The community has gone a step further and contributed land for joint farming. This, they say, is aimed at diversifying their crops.
Various crops including tomatoes, onions, watermelons and maize are cultivated on the 170-acre communal land.
One local resident, said before the dam was rehabilitated, she used to walk for more than 20 kilometres to fetch drinking water at the holes they dug when the dam dried. During such dry seasons, no one thought of farming as it would have been a labour in vain.
[Article source: The Business Daily, by Eunice Murathe]
