Government starts to repair damaged dykes in Budalang’i

The national government has started repairing dykes that were damaged by water that led to  flooding in southern parts of Budalangi constituency, Busia County early this year. According to Eng. Lucy Njoroge from the national water and Irrigation department, the government has set aside Kshs 18 million to refill parts of the dykes that were washed away by water, “The government could not ask for more money from the World Bank to do the repair and when the area MP met the CS, the government agreed to give out the money and it has enabled us to start repairing the dykes.”

Budalang’i MP Raphael Wanjala who together with the engineer inspected the dykes commended the national government for issuing funds to repair the dykes, “I take this opportunity to thank the government for giving out money to repair the dykes that had been damaged by water. Although I know that these are not permanent dykes, but they will help in the meantime to deter water from flooding to homes as the permanent dykes are being constructed.”

He disclosed that the repair works had taken longer to take off due to numerous complex laws put in place to safeguard public funds, “The work could not take off immediately the funds were released because there are a number of laws and rules especially on procurement that had to be followed.”
Wanjala observed that there is a need to train and dredge rivers flowing through Budalang’i to Lake Victoria if the floods menace has to be dealt with once and for all, “If we build and strengthen these dykes only without dredging and draining our rivers then we shall continue to experience floods in this area.”

At least forty thousand families were forced out of their homes after water from river Nzoia and backflow from Lake Victoria flooded into homesteads, health facilities and learning institutions in southern Bunyala. Currently a number of families are still living in camps since their homes are still inaccessible or have no financial capacity to rebuild their destroyed homes.