Families smile when water pipes burst

Sylvia Kanani walks straight into her hovel in Fuata Nyayo slums, Nairobi. She is carrying a 20-litre water container on her back. With the container slung over her head with a leso, the mother of three speaks to the Nation as though she were walking without a load.

Today, she was “lucky” to find a neglected burst pipe on the road. In about 30 minutes, she had collected 40 litres and carried them to her one-room shanty, two kilometres away. This is the third, and she says she wants to carry as much “before the plumbers arrive”.

Every morning, she wakes up early to search for this precious commodity. Any lateness would mean she has to queue for long hours without a guarantee that she may get even five litres.

At home, she piles up clothes to be washed. But it is apparent that the water is too little to finish up all the clothes. Having stayed in this part of Nairobi for as long as she can remember, she devised a method for washing with as little water as possible. But things have changed lately.

“I will have to use this same water on the basin to wash as many clothes as possible because if I pour it away, I won’t wash some,” she says.

For Ms Kanani, this is routine. With three children in school, washing school uniform and bedding is done almost daily, and at a cost. On days when there are no burst pipes, she parts with Sh10 for every 20 litres of water.

Cart water vendors are not found deep in the slums because the roads aren’t there; so she has to go for them on the main roads.

She needs at least six containers per day. For a person who is jobless, spending Sh60 per day is not a joke.

Ms Kanani’s regimen is no different from those of other residents nearby. While Fuata Nyayo has a long list of problems, it seems the search for water, safe or unsafe, has become everyone’s job.

“We don’t care where the water comes from. As long as we can have it to wash, cook and drink, that is fine,” says Daniel who roasts maize for living. “We just have to drink it because we have no choice,” adds his wife, Jane Mwikali.

Daniel has a family of five and their water requirement means that it has to be plenty.

Things worsened a week ago when fire razed houses affecting more than 5,000 families. When the Nation visited the place on Saturday, residents were still rebuilding their rusty iron using sheet huts. But no one had mended toilets that were burnt down.

“Many of us use “flying toilets” because there is nowhere else to go. The only remaining toilets charge Sh5 per visit and it becomes expensive if you have a running stomach,” says Ms Kanani.

“Flying toilets” are plastic bags into which residents defecate before hurling away the waste.

With this scenario, moral questions immediately arise as to whether Kenya should join the frenzy of hugging wine glasses during the World Water Day, marked on Tuesday.

Similar questions arise after revelations that Sh6 billion meant for water supply has been swindled.

A quarter of Kenya’s 40 million people live in towns. More than half of these live in slums.

Kenya is classified as a chronically water scarce country, with fresh water of only 647m3 per capita, which is further projected to fall to 235m3 by 2025.

This year’s theme, “Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge”, aims to encourage governments, organisations, communities, and individuals to address the deficiency that is urban water management.

Figures from the Ministry of Water indicate that while Kenya is determined to achieve Vision 2030, 18 million people do not have clean water, a problem blamed on an archaic policy on water. The National Water Plan was written in 1992, when Kenya had 18 million people.

At a recent water symposium at Kenyatta University, Water Services Secretary John Nyaoro said: “Unless we discover new sources of water, our resources are going to dry out.” He said Kenya needed to tap from the sea through desalination.

Mr Francis Kage of Kenya Water and Health Organisation (Kwaho) said: “These are noble ideals that may not happen soon as they need huge capital investment and running costs.”

Sadly, Ms Kanani needs water now.