Low rainfall cause of Ndakaini woes, insists water resources engineer

Low rainfall cause of Ndakaini woes, insists water resources engineer

The low water levels at Ndakaini dam can be attributed to inadequate rainfall in the Aberdares, the water catchment area.

Speaking to Citizen Television’s Waihiga Mwaura, water resources engineer James Njeru said that deforestation is one of the key factors of the mishap.

“Any rainfall that comes has to infiltrate into the ground then sub-surface then runoff which rapidly recharges rivers,” he said.

“The fact is that we have a lot of water in different places but the water catchment for Ndakaini, which is Aberdares actually is not receiving enough rains and that is where we have the problem, so we would be having water flowing all over but the catchment areas of Ndakaini, do not have enough rainfall.”

Mr. Njeru concurred with Water CS Simon Chelugui’s remarks that deforestation is to blame for the low amount of rainfall.

He also gave his opinion on claims that have been going around of diversion of water as just being a conspiracy theory.

“So I don’t buy that theory I think it’s a natural phenomenon, that is just a conspiracy theory,” added Njeru.

The engineer stated that time taken for water from a catchment area to reach the area of impounding, a dam in this instance, takes a long time and it can take a number of months for water to fill up the dam.

Responding to cases of flooding experienced in Nairobi while water rationing is prevalent, he said that the nature of the city brought about the cases of flooding as seen in recent days.

“Land use determines the amount of runoff we have. Flooding seen in places paved like Nairobi experience direct runoff because water does not seep into the ground.”

“Holding grounds where water is held before being released gradually to avoid flooding in places like Nairobi have been taken up by pavements, buildings and other activities also leading to flooding.”

He suggested integrated water management, where water is stored in dams or creation of a passageway for water to flow through proper channels.

Tags:

CS Simon Chelugui Abadares James Njeru Ndakaini water catchment

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