Garden City to improve Murema School sanitation

Murema Primary School on the outskirts of Nairobi is to get its sanitation facilities improved, thanks to Garden City developers, the people behind Garden City Shopping Mall.

Located less than five kilometres from the shopping mall, the school, which has a student population of 1,800, has one pit latrine block and inadequate water storage facilities. The sewer pipe is  also broken.

Garden City has started renovating water and sanitation facilities at the school as part of its efforts to support the surrounding communities, and will also build new washrooms. 

With the help of the project architects, Triad, Garden City has developed a plan to upgrade the pit latrines, build two separate ablution blocks for boys and girls, rebuild, renovate and expand the school’s sanitation facilities.

In addition, the company will develop a football field and  has levelled the school playground, which had a flood gulley cutting across it.  

After Garden City’s ground breaking in 2012, its management met with the Director of Maji na Ufanisi, Prof Edward Kairu, and commissioned a report on the surrounding catchment area to identify areas in which Garden City developers could use the core skills and resources of its partners to make a difference to the local community in a practical and sustainable way. 

INTEGRATED PROJECT

“We believe that, as well as the overall project impact of creating thousands of new jobs locally, the social benefits of upgrading facilities at Murema School are huge, and we hope that this demonstrates to other developers how the private sector can work effectively with the public sector to improve social infrastructure,” said Mr Stuart Blandford, Garden City’s development director said.

“The preparation work that we have seen started, such as the levelling the school’s playground, has already transformed the children’s play time.”

Garden City has a firm focus on environmental sustainability, which extends to creating significant positive and sustainable social impact among the surrounding communities, the project’s director, Mr Bandford said during the groundbreaking for the project.

“As Garden City grows, we would like the community around the development to grow with it,” said Mr Koome Gikunda, the director of real estate at Actis, Garden Estate’s private equity investor.

Meanwhile, Maji na Ufanisi will  educate the pupils on hygiene and sanitation. 

“Basic water facilities and sanitation are vital to social improvement, so we see this as one very pragmatic way for the project to make a real difference to people’s lives in this area,” Prof Kairu said,

Garden City, an integrated project situated between exits 7 and 8 on the Thika Road,  is scheduled to open its doors this month after the completion of the first phase.

Phase one include 76 two- and three-bedroom apartments and duplexes, as well as a landscaped central park with an open-air amphitheatre for outdoor concerts, exhibitions and entertainment.

The next phases, to include a multiplex cinema, more residential and retail space, a hotel and 20,000 square metres of office space, will be completed in the next two years.