Wajir County Allocated Ksh.98.6 Million towards Climate Change Fund
The Wajir County allocation of Ksh. 98.6 million towards climate change Fund is a game changing move in Kenya’s counties. This pioneering effort happened on March 7, 2018 and as we know when a government sets aside resources it is a true sign of serious commitment towards climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Ahmed Muktar, the Wajir Deputy Governor during the launch indicated the tree planting and renewable energy projects will be included in Wajir County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) to ensure the county residents are able to adapt to the situation.
The Wajir County Deputy Governor further said:
” Wajir County has been experiencing increasingly frequent and severe drought events that have largely weakened the livelihoods and economy. These are often followed by flash flooding that also damages the limited but critical infrastructure such as roads and settlements. As a county, we made a decision to come up with better and coordinated ways of dealing with these challenges even as we wait for national level policies and plans.”
Wajir County has also allocated Ksh. 750 million towards implementation of projects at the ward level. There are 30 wards in Wajir and each one of those will benefit. World Bank is running a project named Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project (KOSAP) which seeks to promote use of solar energy in villages by building sub-stations that harness solar power.
The launch of Wajir Climate Change Fund was attended by Pete Vowels, the head of DFID-UK office in Kenya praised the county’s efforts.
He said the following:
“We are in Wajir to hear from national government leaders, County Government and other grassroot leaders on the development agenda of the County. Wajir has set aside 2% of their development budget to supporting climate change interventions. This is the first in Kenya and a role model for modern development partnership,”
Wajir County is also planning to collaborate with other interested partners such as ALDEF, Ada Consortium among others to scale up the project in all the 30 wards.
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