It is World Water Day in Kalawani Division of Makueni District in Eastern Province. Women who have to cover 14 Kilometers to access water, or pay Kshs 10 for a 20 litre can of the commodity from a neighbor who has sunk a well are gathered. Dignitaries are seated, occasionally gurgling bottle after bottle of their bottled water. The powers that be do what they are always good at: straighten the coat or jacket, go to the podium, pay tribute to the UN for setting aside March 22 as a Water Day, quote from development reports that 1.1 billion people are without safe drinking water and 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation, enact the number of lives lost-this time 6000 people, mostly children, from water related diseases, emphasize the government’s commitment to ensure that no citizen lacks water, and thereafter speed off for a  reception in  the nearest hotel, leaving behind empty  water bottles for the children to play with.

The Kalawani population, mostly small scale farmers, remember with nostalgia promises made by their government that by the year 2000, each of them would have piped water. This time the song is “by 2015.”

They are used to the refrain however. Having borne the brunt of unreliable rainfall for the last forty years, lack of access to credit, high cost of farm inputs, crop attack by pests and disease, no extension services and limited access to technology hence subjecting them to food insecurity, they find hope in their new found alliance to confront their predicament as a group.

As the dignitaries’ Pajeros roar, speed and raise the dust towards the nearest big hotel, The Kalawani Mwanzo Mpya Self Help Group wonders at the seriousness of the government’s oratory. To sink a borehole, they are required to pay Kshs 2600 to the water department to “open their file” and qualify to receive officers in their territory. In addition, they have to meet the officers’ travel, food and accommodation expenses besides an allowance of Kshs 2000 for each officer. After locating the water, they have to pay an additional fee of Kshs 10 000 to the government before they can be allowed to sink the well, which they also have to contract somebody to do.

As the occasion coincides with the launch of the second edition of the World Water Development Report produced by the UN system’s World Water Assessment Programme, the village folk quizzically ponder its relevance to them. The report holds no water for these folk.

“Government money” floats above them in the name of the Constituency Development Fund but they have no say on what it should do. Instead of providing the much needed water, it is building classrooms and buying iron sheets to imprison the young into walls of thirst and deprivation.

“Had the money been used to repair our roads, maybe entrepreneurs would have accessed our area to partner with us in solving our problem,” says Mbuvi.

Meanwhile the group’s ‘merry go round’ where each member contributes Kshs 20 per week goes on. This money is given to two members each week to invest in agriculture and business.

The group has come up with a demonstration plot where they are growing sukuma wiki-(kales) for sale. The plot involved scooping soil from a 3 metre by 12 metre piece of land, laying a polythene sheet in the depression and refilling it with earth.  Water does not percolate into the ground hence they are able to grow their crops without depending on the scarce rain. They are replicating this in their individual farms.

The group has resolved that each member raises Ksh 540 to meet the borehole expenses.

2007 is coming. They shall cross the dry riverbeds again. They shall meet in the same place. They shall bask in the sun as dignitaries sit in the tent. The children will have grown. The grown- ups will have developed gray hair and perhaps joined the ancestors. Perhaps too, Koichiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO will still say:

“The nexus between culture and nature is the avenue for understanding resilience, creativity and adaptability in both social and ecological systems. In this perspective, sustainable water use and hence a sustainable future depend on the harmonious relationship between water and culture. Consequently, it is vital that the water management and governance take cultural traditions, indigenous practices and societal values into serious account.”

By the year 2015, there will be piped water for all. Which culture are we cultivating?