Poor sewerage services hurting hoteliers at Coast

Risk of contamination

He added that with almost every other establishment building their own sceptic tanks, clean water being extracted from boreholes might be contaminated.

“Environmental management authorities should consider incentives by lowering or waiving affluent discharge licence fees for establishments that have set up waste treatment facilities or waive taxes on waste treatment equipment,” he said.

He noted that in the entire coastal region, just about 15 per cent of the population has access to sewer lines and piped water, forcing not just the hoteliersm but also private citizens to pay private operators or make alternative investments for water provision and management of waste water and sewage.

Benjamin Langwen, director of compliance and enforcement at National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) said the major problem with sanitation stems from the Water Act that tasked the responsibility with many institutions.

“Most of these, however, have been concentrating on water supply and leaving out their role of managing sewerage and waste water,” Langwen said.

He added that the water companies should be the operators, managing both supply of clean water and disposal of sewerage while provision of infrastructure should be handled by the Water Services Board.

“We are aware of the state of sanitation at the Coast and have indeed taken the Mombasa Water and Sewerage Company to court in a suit where the Water Services Board is enjoined,” he said.

Langwen also said Nema had revised affluent discharge rates for hoteliers. Previously, a blanket annual rate of Sh100,000 applied for all establishments including factories discharging affluent waste into public infrastructure such as sewer lines.

The new rates for the hotel industry will now be pegged on bed capacity, with a facility that has over 100 beds paying the Sh100,000