Plans underway for new water dam in Maragua

By Kenfrey Kiberenge

Plans to construct a new water dam in Maragua, with work set to start in 2015, to supplement the existing dams are underway, the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) Managing Director Eng Philip Gichuki has said.

In the meantime, the revitalisation of the Ndaka-ini dam with a capacity of 70 million litres is also ongoing and will be completed in two years time.

He was speaking yesterday at the Standard Group Centre when he paid a courtesy call on Standard Group Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Melly.

Standard Group Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Melly with Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Managing Director Eng Philip Gichuki (left) at the Standard Group Centre on Tuesday. [Photo: Maxwell Agwanda/Standard]

At the same time, he urged Nairobi residents to report illegal water connections, pipe leakages and sewer blockages to avoid loss of water or contamination.

Gichuki complained that the firm was losing a lot of water, 38 per cent as of last year, through illegal connections.

Illegal connections

"We lose a lot of water through these illegal connections although we have seen a decline lately as more people are reporting to us," he said.

Gichuki noted that the leakages and blockages had been occasioned by mishandling of two lines by some city residents. "We are asking Nairobi residents to preserve way leaves for sewer and water pipes to allow us to manage these two lines properly. I want to urge people to from encroaching on sewer lines," he said.

He further cautioned against dumping waste material on top of manholes as well as vandalism of valve chambers, sewer lines and manholes, saying this has made it hard for the company to best manage the points.

On his part, Melly called on the Government to provide more funding to the water sub-sector saying the current infrastructure was designed to serve fewer people decades ago.

Growing population

"When you look at Nairobi today there are three times more people than there were 20 years ago, yet little has been done on the water infrastructure to match the growing population," noted Melly.

He said the Government should provide more funding to the sub-sector to meet the millennium development goal of universal provision for clean water by 2015

Mr Melly said the effect of these connections was not just the loss of revenue to the company but also the fact that the beneficiaries are not prudent in the use of the commodity as it is unbilled.

Other plans include the use of information technology to monitor its entire network in order completely stamp out the issue of illegal water connections.

Metre readers are also equipped with motorcycles and modern data loggers of high quality and the firm has also embarked on a pilot project of prepaid metres, which will later be rolled out to the entire city.

NCWSC has also been at the forefront of adopting different ways to make it easier for consumers to know their metre readings, bill balances and pay their bills.

Currently, the firm provides 500 million litres of water to Nairobi residents per day against a demand of over 600 million litres.