The death of Nairobi Dam
Water hyacinth fills most parts of the dam that once acted as a source of drinking water. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP.
What you need to know:
When it was constructed over 50 years ago, it was meant to provide clean drinking water.
It was also used for water sports and recreation. Nairobians and visitors also used to fish and watch bird there.
Unfortunately, it has become one of the biggest health and economic hazards within the Kenyan capital.
It’s a grotesque picture of its former self, hardly recognisable, smelling of sewage; it is lush and green.
Nairobi Dam is gone. And maybe forever, according to an expert.
FARMING
The dam, once one of Nairobi’s recreation areas, a wet land and a source of clean water, is now home to sewage, garbage and water hyacinth as well as land grabbers.
The Nation’s visit to the 88-acre dam revealed ongoing filling of the artificial lake with soil and farming, with a greenhouse at a certain point.
“I have no hope that one day the dam will be recovered not unless something is done to Kibera slum,” says Dr Lawrence Esho, an urban planner.
“There is no dam, it is just but an open sewer, if there was a dam it has become part of Nairobi’s history.”
Part of the land that was reclaimed from the dam by filling it up with earth. There is a greenhouse farming project in one corner of the dead dam. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP.
Through the dam passes the Mutoini River, which joins the Ngong River downstream.
The wetland is surrounded by the sprawling Kibera slum, Lang’ata Paradise Apartments, Dam Estate, Waterside Apartments and Nyayo Highrise Estate.
However, it no longer serves its purpose.
HAZARD
When it was constructed over 50 years ago, it was meant to provide clean drinking water.
It was also used for water sports and recreation. Nairobians and visitors also used to fish and watch bird there.
Unfortunately, it has become one of the biggest health and economic hazards within the Kenyan capital.
“Kibera drains all its sewage into the dam. Over time, it is going to be dangerous. If it will be beneficial one day, an urgent solution is needed,” says Dr Esho.
Arrow roots grow in Nairobi Dam. Unknown people are slowly converting the water reservoir into a farm land. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP.
He suggests an engineering solution to restore the highly contaminated and silted dam, which also acted as a sponge for runoff water during heavy rains.
“We have two solutions, an engineering solution to find a way to drain the water freely, or dredging, which may not help much because of the high volumes of sediments,” the urban planner says.
The destruction of this wetland has been associated with flooding in Kibera slums, Nairobi West, South C and the Industrial Area.
BUILDINGS
This is because it has lost its ability to absorb water because of the solid waste, silt, human waste and encroachment.
As a result, large volumes of surface water drain down the Mutoini-Ngong River like never before.
Unfortunately, the river has been obstructed by buildings, or has been diverted and choked by garbage, which consequently increase the ferocity of floods downstream.
“Nature has a way of revenging. Eventually the water has to find a way out. We have cleared open spaces supposed to absorb water to build and now we have to suffer the consequences,” says Dr Esho.
A section of Nyayo Highrise Flats on the edges of Nairobi Dam. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP.
Nairobi Dam is just one of the many wetlands that have been destroyed in Nairobi City and its environs.
According to Dr Esho, any building along Nairobi River is supposed to be 60 meters away from the highest water mark along the river and between 15- 30 meters for other streams that form the river network within the city.
He says the level of encroachment on wetlands and riparian reserves in the capital has made it hard for water to be absorbed into the ground.
FLOODING
This— is in addition rise in volumes of runoff water from buildings and torrential rainfall— has put pressure on the drainage and sewage systems.
“We are building more than we are expanding the drainage system. Because we want to develop, we should factor in investment into drainage,” says the expert, who is also the Head of Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the Technical University of Kenya.
Some infrastructural designs, he observes, were poorly done.
Land reclaimed from the dam by filling it up with earth. There is a greenhouse farming project in one corner of the dead dam. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP.
“For example, the overpass in Limuru was poorly designed; flooding was not factored in,” he says.
“There is a need to redesign infrastructure so as to take up worst case scenarios since many of them were designed for the ordinary weather,” he says, attributing the frequent flooding to climate change.
Because of global warming and climate change, some regions— including Nairobi— are receiving heavy rainfall yet nothing or very little has been done to re-adjust the drainage system to handle the pressure.
“We need a master plan on drainage in Nairobi. Water from Milimani do not need to flow to the CBD,” he says.
