04/02/2021 - 14:38
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The newly constructed waterpoint will help mitigate conflict over water and pasture for the predominantly pastoralist communities along the Kenya and Ethiopia Border.
The EU-funded Regional Approaches for Sustainable Conflict Management and Integration (RASMI) project handed over a newly constructed water pan at Malkamari, Ethiopia on February 3, 2021.
The water pan will serve border communities of Garre in Kenya and Degodia in Ethiopia, who have historically had conflict over water and pasture for their animals. This project is therefore a peace connector to address the natural resource needs of the two border communities.
Isaac Njuguna, Technical Coordinator for the RASMI project at Pact said, “Peace dividends projects identified through participatory processes contribute to enhancing cross-border interactions, and socialization, which lead to social cohesion. We hope that the Malkamari water pan will be such a project, since it will be co-shared, co-managed and co-owned by the Garre and Degodia communities. It will be great if this dam can improve their relations and reduce periodic communal conflicts resulting from competition over natural resources of water and pasture.”