Gatundu North should reject dams

I come from Gatundu North. My ancestral home is in Ngethu. The mbari ya mwembu occupied the land situated on a slope that dipped to River Chania. River Chania is unique. It is the boundary that separates Kiambu and Murang’a counties. Due to its sparkling and clear running waters, Chania River was considered a solution to Nairobi’s perennial water problem in the 1970s. Using a World Bank loan, the middle Chania dam, pipe line paths and a treatment site at Ngethu were constructed. This meant relocation of families that had lived together for a long time. My family was affected. We temporarily moved to a four-room house in Ngethu Primary School, then known as Ndekei.

The construction workers - whites, Asians and Africans - did not spare the girls in the village. Most girls of my age and those slightly older were married or impregnated by the workers. Since the time of the dam construction, I have not seen a girl mature in Ngethu, go to secondary school and then to university. Life in Ngethu does not allow them. The water project did not provide water to any of the residents in the so called Chania location. Neither is there an all weather road, or electricity for the location. The location does not benefit in any way from the dam or from the treatment site. Only a few locals are employed. The weather also changed and diseases which were previously unknown in the locality set in. Whenever the water treatment site is flushed it causes environmental havoc and poses danger to people downstream.