Residents demand answers over water contaminated with sewage

Yvonne Kafue, a resident of Dam estate in Nairobi, displays sewage-contaminated water from her tank yesterday. [David Njaaga, Standard]

In the past one month, Yvonne Kafue has sought medical treatment for a seemingly minor stomach illness.

But while she is now fully recovered, the progress she has made might well be useless.

On Sunday morning, Ms Kafue unknowingly drank water contaminated with sewage - again.

“I woke up feeling thirsty and since the water in the dispenser was warm I decided to drink tap water,” she told The Standard at her home in Nairobi's Dam estate yesterday.

Kafue said she drank an entire glass of water and nothing about it seemed unusual. But just a few minutes later, when she turned on the shower, she realised drinking the tap water was a mistake.

Bad odour

“The water had an extremely bad odour. I could not even have a shower,” she said.

Thanks to her strong sense of smell, Meg Oduor, another Dam estate resident, was lucky to detect that the water was impure even before she used it.

On Friday night, in an incident similar to another that occurred last month, residents were supplied with water that was mixed with sewage.

The first time it happened, the residents only realised the contamination several days later, as the water became darker and smellier.

What the residents thought to be water was, in fact, sewage. By then, most of them had used the water for drinking and cooking, and had started to become sick, exhibiting symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhoea.

“Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) rations our water supply. We usually get water for a day or two from Thursday to Saturday every week,” said Justus Wanyama, the estate manager.

Kafue now fears that she might fall sick again, which means more money on treatment.

“It has been only three weeks since I cleaned and disinfected the tank and now I have to do it again, which is yet another expense," she added.

According to Mr Wanyama, during the last incident, each resident paid an average of Shs 3,000 to have their tanks cleaned and disinfected.

Another resident who did not want to be named told The Standard that the last time the estate got the sewage water, he spent thousands of shillings on treatment for himself and his brother. The two experienced severe diarrhoea that persisted for days.

Faecal matter

“It was horrible. The water was extremely dirty and smelled very bad. Later, when the residents emptied the tanks for cleaning and disinfecting, they realised faecal matter had settled at the bottom,” said Wanyama.

When The Standard team looked inside two tanks picked at random yesterday, a solid substance was visible at the bottom, and there were tiny insect-like creatures wriggling in the reeking brownish water.

With more than 250 main houses and several rented-out extensions and servants’ quarters, Wanyama estimates the total number of residents surpasses 1,000.

In the September incident, NCWSC stated the contamination was caused by an illegal water connection that had interfered with the water and sewage pipes, leading to sewage leaking into the water pipes.

“We had to clean and disinfect the tanks and pipes thoroughly," the residents said. "The NCWSC had promised to take care of the cleaning and disinfection but did not. They also promised to provide us with chlorine but did not."

The residents are now demanding answers from NCWSC, who they say is treating the matter casually.

But Mbaruk Vyakweli, the water firm's communications director, last week said they had fixed the problem.