After losing their land, fortune now smiles on former IDPs

• The women grow vegetables and fruit on a communal plot near Naivasha Town

While WWF has provided financial support, market links and surface runoff water harvesting techniques, the World Vision supported the women’s group with technical support, including managerial skills and also donated water tanks to assist them in water harvesting.

A world Vision official said they would continue supporting the group and would, in due course, provide them with more water tanks.

The tanks will help spread water to the farm using gravity. WWF has assisted the group to build water pans at an estimated cost of Sh400,000 per pan, to harvest surface run off water during the short rains.

The NGO has already supported the building of five pans as a pilot project before embarking on up-scaling.

New technology

To ensure efficient use of the harvested water, WWF has supported the installation of an environment-friendly drip irrigation system on the farm owned by the women.

The group members have undergone training on how to use harvested water more efficiently through drip irrigation, small buckets and water pans, a method now used by individuals and the larger community.

A consultant hired by the WWF said the water pan is a new technology for the women’s group and community at large. The women have undergone training on the various methods of harvesting rain water including roof catchment, rock catchment and surface run-off harvesting.

“For a long time, farmers have been engaging in unsustainable farm production. It is high time farmers started growing ideal crops for their ecological zones,” said WWF Naivasha project boss Robert Ndetei.

Apart from using harvested water to grow water melons and indigenous vegetables, the group also grows maize, beans and potatoes on their individual farms to supplement their income.

To conserve the environment the group is growing trees in their communal land as well as in individual farms.

Ms Zainabu Malicha, the group’s secretary, says it draws its membership from all the tribes and they are fondly referred to as “Kabila la wanawake.’’

Long distances

She says that the problems that the girl child faces are similar, to those of women, having to travel long distances in search of water, discrimination as far as opportunities are concerned, and generally not being taken seriously in decision-making process.

But the women’s dream faces a setback from wildlife. Wildlife has proved a nightmare for the farmers, as the animals stray into their plots and destroy crops.