National Govt to de-silt reservoir soaking Kitobo Secondary School

Senior Interior and Coordination and Education officials wading through waters surrounding Kitobo Secondary School in Taveta Sub County, Taita-Taveta County. [Renson Mnyamwezi/Standard]

The Government has pledged to save a secondary school from being swamped by a nearby river.

Taveta Deputy County Commissioner Stanley Kamande said a team from the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) had been dispatched to Kitobo Secondary School to assess the problem and take action.

“The NG-CDF committee has promised to allocate funds to disilt Kitobo River, whose water is back-flowing to the school. The river has been blocked due to heavy siltation,” said Mr Kamande.

He said emerging springs had made the school compound swampy, turning it into inhabitable ground and disrupting learning for the more than 200 students enrolled in the institution.

The Standard highlighted the school's plight two days ago.

Water from Kitobo River and underground water from nearby Mount Kilimanjaro has been seeping beneath the walls of the only secondary school in Kitobo location, turning the compound into a swamp.

The water has flooded toilets and caused cracks on classroom walls. There are fears that it might soak through electrical wiring and pose more danger for the school community.

Local administrators and teachers said the situation was likely to worsen during the long rains expected between March and June.

Uncontrolled human activities have also been blamed for the diversion of the water from the river into the school.

Kamande said about Sh200, 000 was required to manually disilt the river and end the problem.

“If the river continues discharging its water into the school then it could soon be submerged and closed,” he said.

He exonerated the national government from blame for not moving swiftly to address the problem.

“Disilting is supposed to be done by the county administration, but the NG-CDF committee has decided to intervene to save the situation.” Kamande accused the county administration of handling the matter casually.

The National Environment Management Authority county coordinator, Judith Kalo, said water from Kitobo springs had stagnated, affecting learning institutions and villages around the forest bordering Tanzania.