What needs to be done to stop flooding in residential areas

In light of the devastation that heavy rains are causing across the country, the Meteorological Department’s warning that the rainfall could continue into June in most parts of the country is alarming.

Everywhere one turns, there are cries for assistance from the Government as helpless citizens lose lives, animals, property, and their homes to raging floods.

Kilungu village in Makueni County, and indeed other areas in the country, have had mudslides. This clearly stresses the need for those in areas prone to this phenomenon and others likely to be affected to take precautions and move to safer places rather than wait for Government assistance that may be long in coming, if at all.

Gains made, and particularly by county governments in infrastructural development in their respective jurisdictions, have been reversed by the flooding that has washed away large sections of roads and destroyed bridges.

In areas where a single road or bridge connects several places, some people find themselves confined to their homes, cut off from schools, shopping centres, and hospitals. In times of medical emergencies, lives stand to be lost.

This also poses security risks as the police cannot reach certain places if there is a need for their services.

Earlier, this newspaper noted that even as many in the northern part of Kenya wished for the heavens to open up to save them the agony of losing their livestock and having schools closed as pupils go to help their parents search for water, the rains have caused even more harm.

Displaced people

Floods and swollen rivers have displaced people and destroyed property. The very water that was needed to save livestock is killing animals as it sweeps them away.

Worse, as a concerned resident complained on television recently, human waste and worms from flooded pit latrines could trigger the spread of diseases, yet the Government is ill-prepared to deal with such a disaster.

In Makueni and Kisumu counties and parts of western Kenya, several rivers have burst their banks and crops have been destroyed. A few weeks ago in Marigat, 400 acres of beans were swept away after River Perkera burst its banks.

In the end, and because man’s activities have destroyed protective vegetation, thus exposing large portions of farmland to serious soil erosion, our country's food situation will be affected.

It might help to ask ourselves some questions. How did we get here? Are we entirely at the mercy of nature?

Man’s activities

Indeed, there is nothing we can do about the rain, but man’s activities play a big role in creating situations that put our lives at risk when nature comes calling, particularly in urban centres.

Heavy rains on Monday night flooded large sections of Nairobi’s residential areas. Many people could not leave their houses to go to work, a great cost to the economy. The situation has exposed worrying disaster unpreparedness on the part of both tiers of government.

Too often, this newspaper has decried the haphazard manner of city planning that sees developers erect buildings on riparian land and natural waterways. Sadly, some of the buildings are put up through shoddy workmanship and without observing safety standards. They frequently come tumbling down during the rainy season.

It is worth noting that water will always find its level, and when that happens, everything in its path must give way.

Excess rain water in most estates in Nairobi gets into homes because the natural waterways to channel it safely to rivers have been blocked by buildings.

In a few areas where drainage systems have been installed, more often than not, they are blocked by plastic and other waste that residents throw away without a care.

While the blame for blockages falls on residents, the county government and the National Environment Management Authority are culpable for failing to unclog the drainage system and enforce laws that deter careless dumping of waste.