It’s raining, but we’re still thirsty

It is one of those days when the taps in Komarock have gone dry. It has been this way for weeks on end. The dwellers of this estate, located in the Eastern part of the city, are thirsty, and they are willing to pay just about any amount to water vendors for the precious commodity

The scene is characterized by queues of women carrying all kinds of containers, waiting anxiously to purchase the liquid necessity. On the other side are hordes of handcarts and bicycles, piled high with Jerry-cans that water vendors are ready to cash in on Komarock residents misfortune.

Lawrence Mwanzia, a water vendor in Nairobi’s Komarock estate, is one of the people who makes a killing when Nairobi’s taps run dry. When everyone is cursing at the situation of water shortages in town, Mwanzia is jubilating and thanking God for creating a unique business opportunity.

In May, there was a three-week shortage that created a desperate situation in the community. The residents were forced to turn to people like Mwanzia for their household needs.

“In May, I made a lot of money by selling a 20-litre Jerry-can for Ksh. 30 and an extra Ksh. 10 for home deliveries. I normally make a total of Ksh. 3,800 per day but on a bad day I make paltry Ksh. 700 shillings because then I will sell a Jerry-can at 20 shillings,” says Mwanzia.

The Ministry of Water has plans to solve the water problems in the city by putting up a dam in Maragwa in the next two years, that will be three times bigger than Ndakaini dam. The Director of Water Services, Engineer Lawrence Simitu, says that the Ministry is currently doing a feasibility plan and that the construction is at the design stage for the Maragwa dam.

“The dam will have a storage capacity of 240 million liters, which will supply Nairobi city for the next 20 years. We are hopeful that the construction will start by the middle of next year, so that we can cover the high demand of the Nairobi residents,” He said.

In the same vein, Engineer Joseph Kimani, the Technical Director of Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCW&SC), indicates that while Ndakaini dam’s water capacity is currently at 94 percent, it’s not enough to meet the demand of the Eastern part of the city.

He also cites that NCW&SC has limited infrastructure and can only deliver 480,000 liters, rather than Nairobi’s current demand of 670,000litres. Either way, Nairobi residents will have to bear the burden of paying for the water deficit. Kimani is confident that NCW&SC will solve the water problems of Eastlands.

They have partnered with World Bank, African Development Bank (ADB) andAFD (French Agency) to upgrade and extend NCW&SC’s infrastructure to where there is none. “We have to upgrade our distribution system by enlarging the pipes to suit the demands of the growing population. For areas such as Ruai and further parts of Embakasi we have to extend pipes there, because these are new estates and are lacking efficient piping. We are also upgrading our pipes by broadening the diameter of the pipes especially in informal settlements like Soweto, Mukuru kwa Njenga among other slums”.

Kimani also noted that some newly built estates in the Eastlands area, which were initially designed for single homes, have developed into high-rise apartments. This unplanned growth now requires a whole upgrade of the sewerage system serving the area.

Areas like Kileleshwa, Lavington and Umoja are among such areas where they are liaising with the landlords to upgrade the pipes. However, he confirms there is a big challenge in Nairobi, especially in the sewerage system, because of construction encroachment of sewer-ways, misuse of sewers by urban farmers, illegal connection and the stealing of the manhole covers.

Such behavior makes it very difficult for them to conduct maintenance successfully. “Urban farmers deliberately block the sewers so that they can divert water to their gardens; we have always penalized illegal connection of water and dismantled such pipes. The manhole covers – especially in the city centre – are in a sorry state. We keep replacing them, but it’s not helpful. So, we have decided to use concrete with minimum reinforcement to reduce the rate of stealing,”he adds.

Simitu is quick to point out that the Ministry has addressed recent water shortages by digging boreholes. Currently, the Ministry built boreholes in Eastland areas like Kayole, Donholm, Utawala and extreme west of the city, including Dagoretti and Uthiru, among others.

He adds that the government has set aside Kshs. 10-billion to build 21 more dams in the country to serve the country’s soaring population. Construction of these 21 dams is expected to be carried out between the years 2015 to 2017. “We have realized that climate change is a major challenge, after three months of experiencing plenty of rain, we are not able to tap it and cater for the huge water needs of clients.

Therefore, we have started with five dams which include: Marubu in Machakos, which is complete, Kiserian in Kajiado, Umaa in Kitui, Badasa in Marsabit, Chemosusu in Baringo which are all under construction. All of them will give a storage capacity of 21 million liters of water.” he stresses.

According to Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Corporate Affairs officer Mr. James S. Karanja, the council is currently sensitizing people against encroaching on land and building over sewerage systems. “Water pipes were put up way back in the colonial period before the planning of Nairobi was done. This is why we have to liaise with constructors and engineers when they are building roads to rechannel the water pipes, recently we have rechanneled the water pipes due to the Thika road expansion along museum hill,” he emphasizes.

One hopes these plans will become a reality and finally citizens can enjoy clean water—a right that the government owes its citizens as stipulated in the new constitution.