WestPokot County Stakeholders Plan on Ways to Deal With Heavy Rains

By Benson Aswani,

West Pokot stakeholders have organized a meeting to deal with the effects of the ongoing heavy rains in the County.

Officials from the disaster and health sector in West Pokot County are set to meet with various stakeholders including social organizations to highlight the state of the county during this period of heavy rains.

According to reports by the officials there are plans on how to deal with any disasters incase they are reported.

Speaking after the meeting, the chief officer in the county’s disaster department, David Chepelion, said many areas of the county have been severely affected by the rain, especially infrastructure.

Meanwhile the team have agreed to develop awareness among citizens about the effects that may be witnessed this season.

“We have met with various stakeholders to highlight the impact of the rain so far and the steps we have to take moving forward to prevent further damage,” said Chepelion.

The Director of the County’s health department, Jacob Ruto, said that they are continuing with the exercise of distributing mosquito nets to the residents of different areas in an effort to ensure that malaria is faced out this season.

“The rainy season is often accompanied by diseases, especially malaria. As a department, we distribute mosquito nets to control malaria cases among our people,” said Ruto.

On his part, the officials in charge of the red cross organization in the county, Scholar Kapelo, explained the need for strategies to face the famine that he said may be witnessed in the near future due to the destruction of plants and floods that have been witnessed.

“There are very big effects that have been caused by this rain, because the plants in the fields have been damaged and there may be famine in the near future. Therefore, strategies should be put in place to help the people,” said Kapelo.

Likewise an official at the World Vision organization Teresa Cheptoo explained the need to put in place appropriate arrangements to prevent harm in the near future if it is witnessed again the highest level of rain that has been witnessed this season.

“There is a need for appropriate arrangements that will help us face the effects of heavy rains in the near future to prevent the effects we have witnessed this season,” said Cheptoo.