Sonkolaunches crackdown on water cartels, promises Ksh.300K reward

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko on Saturday launched a crackdown targeting water cartels blamed for shortages within the capital city.

Governor Sonko further offered Nairobi residents a cash reward of Ksh.300,000 if they bust and arrest cartels who divert water to private vendors by disconnecting water pipes in the city estates.

Speaking at Kiboro grounds in Mathare during the Nairobi monthly clean-up exercise, Sonko also offered a reward of Ksh.10,000 to the public if they bust and arrest Nairobi City County Government officials who collude with water cartels to divert pipe water to private water vendors.

“Investigations reveal that the water shortage being experienced in many parts of Nairobi is as a result of sabotage by water cartels whose days are now numbered,” said Sonko, adding that his administration is determined to net criminals found destroying water pipes and destruction of property.

The county boss said the water demand for Nairobi City is 790,000 cubic meters against an installed production capacity of 526,000 cubic meter. The demand of water in Nairobi grows by 20,000 cubic meters per year.

The Governor, however, promised that his administration, the national government, and the World Bank in collaboration with other donors are funding construction of the northern collector tunnel, Phase 1, which is meant to supply 140,000 cubic meters of water to Nairobi. The project is expected to be completed by October 2019.

“This project will only divert flood water to the tunnel from three rivers; Gikigie, Irati and Maragua in Murang’a. The tunnel will bring water to Thika/Ndakaini dam whose yield today is unable to support the required production capacity of Ngethu water treatment works of 440,000 cubic meters,” said Sonko.

Sonko has also promised that his county government is working on plans to improve water supply to Lang’ata and Karen areas. He said a pipeline is being done from Kabete to Uthiru and then to Karen shopping centre, where it will be tied to the existing pipeline along Lang’ata road.

“This will address water supply problems in the whole of Langata constituency and remove the water conflict between Kibra and Lang’ata constituencies,” he added.

“Also at South C along the Olive hospital road, the county has a 24,000,000 liter water reservoir tank which has the capacity to supply water to the entire Lang’ata constituency, however so many residential houses have been constructed on top of the water pipeline and at some point blocked the pipeline from supplying water to this major reservoir tank,” he said.

Estates in Lang’ata are not currently getting enough because the pipeline which serves the area passes through Kibera where cartels have over obstructed water to sell to private vendors within Kibera.

“To address this problem, for the last two weeks we have been holding community mobilization meetings with the Kibera residents on how they can be served and release more water to estates in Lang’ata.” added Sonko.

“We have come into consensus on how to rationalize the water pipelines without causing any violence in the area and also avoid water shortage which can lead to cholera and other water borne diseases outbreak.”