By Linah Musangi
Women from Ngomeni Ward in Mwingi North, Kitui County, have linked the region’s severe water shortage to the rising cases of broken marriages, particularly among young couples.
The women say that the persistent water crisis has left them with little time for their families, as they are forced to trek more than 20 kilometers at night to fetch water from nearby rivers.
They explained that the process is time-consuming, as they must scoop sand to access underground water and wait for it to collect — often spending the entire night by the riverbanks.
The women are now appealing to the government to intervene by drilling more boreholes in the area, saying the few existing ones are insufficient to meet the community’s needs.
