NAIROBI, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A British charity unveiled a new database on Thursday to help Kenyans in one of the country's poorest regions manage meagre water supplies and avoid disease. Compiled by Earthwatch scientists and volunteers over three years, the maps show the location, quality and seasonal variability of springs, rivers, pools and dams in the east African nation's remote north-central Samburu District. "In this semi-arid region where people and wildlife compete for natural resources, the new GIS database has the potential to greatly improve access to clean drinking water," Nat Spring, a senior official of the environmental group, said in a statement. Earthwatch said they would keep updating the database and are working with local groups to spread the information kept in it through communities. Fights over scarce resources are common between the pastoralists who roam Kenya's desolate north, including Samburu, which lies about 250 km (155 miles) from the capital Nairobi. The geographic information system maps will also help avoid outbreaks of disease, Earthwatch said, in an area where more than three-quarters of diagnosed illnesses are waterborne. And they have already borne fruit. Last year, doctors at Samburu's Wamba Mission Hospital detected cholera in a water sample collected by the environmental group, preventing a possible epidemic. "If we know a patient comes from a village where the water is contaminated, we can treat them accordingly," said Philip Leitore, the hospital's coordinator of infection prevention. "I hope this information will help people, including wildlife herders who travel with their livestock, to find and choose cleaner water sources."
