Wajir County: Drought Early Warning Bulletin for May 2014

SITUATION OVERVIEW

• The county drought situation is at alert stage on worsening trend following the depressed rainfall which was poorly distributed in both time and space.

• Agro pastoral livelihood zone of Bute and Gurar received 196.6mm and 211.8mm respectively while the entire all species livelihood zone recorded less than 80mm. Griftu received the lowest amount of rainfall with only 30mm recorded (source Met dept).

• The general condition of pastures and browse ranged from fair to poor with Wajir central and Wajir North having relatively fair pasture while Griftu, Eldas, Tarbaj, Hadado, Wajir Bor and Sabuli are experiencing stressed pasture and browse conditions.

• The body conditions of all livestock species range from fair to good. Livestock in agro pastoral livelihood zone have shown signs of recovery while those in all species, camel and cattle zones are experiencing slow rate of recovery due to pasture and water related stresses.

• There is a medium level water stress in the county with about 75 centers relying on water trucking. This is attributed to the depressed rainfall which was poorly distributed in time and space.

• The average household distances to watering points increased by about 50%. On average, distances have increased to 4.1Km from 2.13Kmthe previous month.This is above the average return distance of 2.1km recorded similar time previous year.

• Average distance from grazing areas to watering points increased to 9.8Km from 5.4Km the previous month. This followed after some of the partially-filled water pans, natural ponds and other temporary water collection points dried up following the cessation of the long rains.

• Top prevalent diseases in the county are; Other diseases of respiratory system, Diseases of the skin (incl. wounds), Pneumonia, Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) and Malaria (confirmed and clinical) both in persons over 5 years and children under 5 years of age. Diarrhea was more pronounced among children under 5 years of age. (DHIS, April2014).

• The proportion of children at risk, that is, children below 5years of age for MUAC <135mm decreased slightly to 13.2% from 13.78% the previous month.

• There were 227 new admissions of children into Outpatient Therapeutic Programmed (OTP)and 523 new admissions into Supplementary Feeding Programme, implying a reduction as compared to the admissions made in March (SFP). (DHIS April 2014).

• There was migration of livestock from most parts of Wajir West, East, Tarbaj and Eldas all species livelihood zone to Wajir South, Isiolo and Marsabit Counties and while those in Wajir South moved to Somalia.

• Insecurity cases in Tarbaj and Wajir Central were reported and a number of households have been displaced.