By Correspondent
In 2016 the then Buuri MP Gatobu Kinoti decided to pump Sh3 million to sink a borehole at Tutua in Rwarera, one of Meru County’s driest area.
Residents of Rwarera which borders Isiolo County had suffered a lack of food and a shortage of safe drinking water.
The youthful Kinoti responded and had cash from the Constituency Development Fund directed towards a borehole at Tutua primary school, a hydrological survey showed there was ample water in the area.
But the contractor and residents were astonished by the amount of water that came out of the borehole, just 100 meters below the surface. They were sinking a sea-level borehole when they encountered the jackpot.
At first, the contractor thought the water coming out was flood water running underground and stopped work for two days hoping to resume drilling.
But it emerged that they had struck the water table, and it contained a lot of water.
Mr. Kinoti, now a director at the Presidential Delivery Unit which works to assess national government projects across the country, said the amount of water that came out was more than what they expected.
“It flooded the whole area, and a channel had to be created to allow it flow downstream. The pressure was too much and it needed no pumping. The money we had set aside to purchase solar panels, pumps, and other equipment was directed to other projects,” he said.
And that is how the “river of God”, as residents call it, came to exist.
Now the river of God flows from Buuri Sub County to some parts of Tigania West and Tigania East sub-counties in Meru and into Isiolo County.
Farmers along its route have tapped it and now grow various food crops, but mainly tomatoes, onions, kale, and other vegetables.
Some of the biggest beneficiaries of the “river” are Tutua Primary and St James Tutua Secondary School in whose compound the borehole is located.
In addition to fish ponds, the schools’ administrators grow bananas, kale, maize, sugarcane, and others, to support their feeding program.
“This is one of the driest areas in Meru. But now hundreds of farmers have constructed intakes along the river and grow different crops. The soils are fertile but there was no water,” Kinoti said.
Local farmers Joseph Murungi and John Karagania are some of those who have benefited from the borehole channel.
“I grow onions, kale, and other crops for subsistence and sell the surplus. But we also want a mechanism put in place so that more can benefit. Some people upstream have diverted large amounts of water to their farms, leaving little for us downstream,” Murungi said.
Residents of Buuri are also set to benefit from the Kiirua-Buuri irrigation project which Kinoti pumped Sh10 million in 2015, with the national government allocating Sh280 million.
“We thank President Uhuru Kenyatta because the irrigation project will cover half of Buuri Sub County. It is 90 percent done. It will be a game-changer in terms of agricultural production,” he said.
