Anger as raw sewage seeps into city taps

By AUGUSTINE ODUOR

It is on the New Year's eve and you are preparing for a big family party. You turn on your kitchen tap, ready to start preparing meals when the worst happens. Instead of bringing water, the tap wheezes and spurts out a pungent smelling, dark green liquid. The entire house is quickly engulfed by the foul smell of raw sewage.

This is what befell residents of Santack estate in Nairobi’s Dagoretti area as they prepared to celebrate the New Year.

Households had their sinks filed with raw sewage instead of water and fear of water-borne diseases now looms large as the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company launched investigations into what may have happened.

UGLY GIFT

Louis Onkunya, a resident is angry at what he terms "an ugly new year gift."

He said he had hosted friends for a party but had not done the dishes because there was no running water in the tap.

"When my neighbour told me there was water, I rushed to the kitchen sink. When I turned the tap on, a dark green liquid with a terrible stench of raw sewage poured into the dishes," he told The Standard yesterday.

"I could not believe it. I have never seen such a thing in my life. For a moment, I ran out of the kitchen to alert my neighbours," he added.

Carolyne Wanjala, another resident suspects her children drank the water. "In my house the water was a bit clear but seemingly contaminated judging by the smell. I suspect my children drank it because they have had stomach problems since yesterday," she said.

Another resident, Stephen Odhiambo, said he caught whiff of a strange smell when he walked into his house.

"My wife checked the toilets but it was odourless. When she opened the taps, raw sewage poured into the sink. We had left our children in the house. We do not know whether they had used the water," he said.

The residents say they have not had regular tap water supply for the last ten years. However, in the run-up to Christmas and the New Year, he said, water came into the taps in the estate almost daily.

"We thought this was a Christmas and New Year gift but alas! We now fear an outbreak of disease," said Odhiambo.

They suspect a trench dug by a private developer to empty raw sewage was the cause of their problems.

"The raw sewage empties into the plastic pipes. There are about three points where the raw sewage pipes run parallel to the plastic water pipes," said Kimani.

He said with a slight crack, sewage water could easily flow into the clean water.

PRIVATE DEVELOPER

They said complaints to the private developer, the Nairobi City Council and the Nairobi Water Sewerage Company have been futile.

" This is certainly not the best way to start a new year," said Kimani.

The Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company yesterday admitted there was a problem in the estate and said the area has been isolated to establish the cause of the leakage.

The firm’s Corporate Affairs Manager, Mbaruku Vyakweli, assured the residents the problem would soon be sorted out.