Nairobi residents worried over broken sewers and unchecked dumping in rivers

What you need to know:

  • The sight of raw sewerage has become common with sewer lines leaking ostensibly as a result of heavy rains.
  • The Nairobi River basin is a complex of several parallel streams flowing towards the eastern side of Nairobi.
  • These rivers collect all kinds of dirt especially the effluent dumped by people living in the slums of Kibera, Mathare, Kawangware and Mukuru Kwa Njenga.
  • The Nairobi County Nema director said another problem has been uncollected garbage dumped near river banks.

Residents of some city estates are worried over broken sewer lines and unchecked dumping in rivers.

The sight of raw sewerage has become common with sewer lines leaking as a result of heavy rains which experts are attributing to the El Nino weather phenomenon.

It is not unusual for sewer lines in Nairobi to break down during heavy rains.

And the raw sewer usually flows into rivers making lives of many City residents unbearable.

Many people have expressed their appreciation of efforts by City Hall to unclog the drainage system.

The City County government has deployed hundreds of youths in areas mapped out as flooding hotspots to clear waterways and other channels.

It has also stationed engineers in the areas who are assisting people to deal with the flood waters.

SHOWS NO SERIOUSNESS

Concern has also been raised over the pollution of the Nairobi River basin.

The river is fed by several parallel streams flowing towards the eastern side of Nairobi.

These rivers that form the basin meet at the River Athi and eventually flow into the Indian Ocean.

These rivers collect all kinds of dirt especially the effluent dumped by people living in the slums of Kibera, Mathare, Kawangware and Mukuru Kwa Njenga.

This is what has been poisoning and littering the Nairobi River basin.

Pollution in the basin is not new but this time, the situation has been made worse by the on-going rains as the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) also admits.

“It is true that people have been complaining to us about pollution of rivers due to dumping and raw sewage, which is being discharged into rivers,” Nema Nairobi County Director, Titus Simiyu, confirmed saying his office has been receiving numerous complaints from people.

UPMARKET RESIDENTS WORST HIT

Some of the people worst affected by the pollution are residents of upper market estates of Lavington and Kileleshwa whose residential houses neighbour Kirichwa Dogo River.

The river that passes through the two estates from Kawangware has always been prone to dumping by the slum dwellers.

According to Mr Simiyu, there are no sewer lines in Kawagware.

There are people who use pit latrines while there others who do not have toilets.

Like in the sprawling Kibera slums where toilets also do not exists, some slum dwellers use what is referred to as “flying toilets”.

A flying toilet is a plastic bags for open defecation, which, after use is thrown away.

In Kawangware, when these bags are thrown on a channel, they are swept by flood waters into Kirichwa Dogo River.

A spot check by Nation in this slum revealed that most of these plastic bags are usually collected by a group of youth employed by waste management companies.

They collect the bags together with others containing ordinary wastes and put them in a dumping site for collection by trucks, which then dispose garbage at the Dandora dumpsite.

ACCESS ROADS IMPASSABLE

“During the rains, access roads in the slums are impassable by mkokoteni (pull cart) and so most of the garbage goes uncollected,” one of the youth said on condition of anonymity.

In Kibera, Mr Simiyu said human waste and other garbage is swept into Mutu-ini-Ngong River.

These mucky waters sometimes spill over into residential estates during rainy seasons when the river banks bursts.

The Nairobi County Nema director said another problem has been uncollected garbage dumped near river banks.

He said they have been trying to engage both the City County government and Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company over the issue of uncollected garbage and breakages of sewer lines.

“None of them have been accepting to take the responsibility,” he said.

Sewer lines are seeping in several other parts of the City affecting livelihoods of many including traders.

City Hall had in this year’s budget set aside Sh119 million, part of which was for cleaning up the Nairobi River besides improving sewer lines in Dandora and Kayole estates.

What is not clear is whether the regional government has since come up with any defined project for cleaning the river.

CHOLERA OUTBREAKS

The national government was early this month forced to intervene given that pollution of the Nairobi River basin is always blamed cholera outbreaks in the City.

This is what compelled Environment, Natural Resources and Regional Development Authorities Cabinet Secretary, Judy Wakhungu to convene a meeting of different players in government early November to address the issue of pollution in the Nairobi River basin whose contamination is becoming a threat to City residents.

Prof Wakhungu immediately formed a joint task-force comprising of different government agencies that would be seeking for the temporary solution to this pollution.

The task-force whose mandate is to first seek for a temporary solution is being coordinated by Urban River, a newly created department in the ministry.

Members of the-task force include Nema, City County of Nairobi and Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Services (NCWSS).

Others are Water Resource Management Authority (Warma) and Athi Water Services Board (AWSB).

Warma is a state corporation, which is a lead agency in water resources management while AWSB is responsible for provision of efficient and economical water and sanitation services within the city of Nairobi and its outlying areas.

UPGRADE SEWER SYSTEM

“We are trying to see if we could raise money to first upgrade the sewer system, which cannot cope with the increasing population,” Urban River director, Eric Akotsi told Nation in a telephone interview.

The task force has already prepared a budget, which Mr Akotsi did not disclose.

The budget will be presented to the Cabinet for approval.

Mr Akotsi said they also want to include Land, Housing and Urban Development ministry to assist in marking riparian boundaries in Nairobi.

“The presence of people living on riparian land is another cause of pollution of the rivers and we have to get a way of addressing this problem,” the Urban River director said.

A similar project to clean the Nairobi River basin had successfully been started by the late John Michuki in 2008 when he was the Environment Minister.

The initiative had worked but it later collapsed with the demise of the former Kangema MP in 2011.