With the creation as thoroughly mapped and monitor as it is , it ’s easy to forget the Earth still harbors its fairish share of secrets . Case in pointedness : yesterday , the United Nations Educational , Scientific and Cultural Organization announced that Kenya ’s drought - striken Turkana County sits , rather ironically , atop a staggeringly Brobdingnagian reserve of ulterior piddle .
UNESCO reports that the Litikipi Basin Aquifer , on its own , has the voltage to “ increase Kenya ’s strategical water backlog . ” The four remain aquifer , combined with shallower reserves currently being tapped , have the electric potential to redefine the country ’s intact relationship with water . Via Radar Technologies International ( RTI ) , the firm tapped to assist the Kenyan government in its hunt for water :
Overall , the RTI study find that Turkana hosts a minimum reserve of 250 billion three-dimensional meters of water , which is recharge mainly by the rainfall of the Kenyan and Ugandan highlands at a pace of 3.4 billion cubic meters [ 3.45 trillon cubic decimeter ] per twelvemonth . This raw wealthiness of piss could boost Kenya ’s portion of available pee by 17 % and alone represents nearly double the amount of piddle that Kenyans eat up today . This groundwater raise the prospect for improving the livelihoods of the Turkana citizenry , most of whom live in poverty and have limited access to basic services and clean water .
The next step , according to UNESCO , is to quantify the aquifer ’ content more definitively , and appraise their H2O character . For now , though , people sound affirmative that the aquifers could bring good water to Kenya ’s 41 - million - mortal population , 17 million of which lacking access to secure piddle and 28 million of which do not have adequate sanitisation .
“ The newsworthiness about these water reserves comes at a prison term when true water provision are highly needed , ” said Judi Wakhungu , Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Environment , Water and Natural Resources at a UNESCO meeting on pee security , held yesterday . She continued , highlight the importance of protect the resourcefulness and preserving it for those who demand it most :
This new found wealthiness of water open up a door to a more prosperous future for the people of Turkana and the country as a whole . We must now work to further search these resources responsibly and safeguard them for future generations .
Read more atUNESCOandRTI .
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