Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Residents of Ruiru constituency in Kiambu county are up in arms with a section of companies operating in the area over incessant release of raw sewage and industrial effluent to their rivers.

Concerned residents, some of who farm along the banks of rivers Ndarugu and Mukuyu, took issue with the companies for discharging the foul-smelling sewage and effluents, an illegality they claimed has continued to kill the marine life in the water. The two rivers which feed Ruiru-Juja Water and Sewerage Company (RUJWASCO) with water are now drying due to excessive pollution.

Edward Kuria Muriithi, a farmer along Mukuyu river said the water decolourises from changes colour which makes them suspect pollution by factories operating near the area.

Irrigation farming

It is reported that some of the companies are brave enough to have connected direct discharge points all the way from their factories to the river.“This is the river that we rely on for irrigation farming. Our problem now is that water along it is no longer fit for consumption and irrigation as it has been heavily polluted,” said Muriithi.

A tour by journalists to Mukuyu river established that some of its sections have turned milky-white and turbid while sending out a smell of rotten materials, an indication that the water source is contaminated.

Residents accused the companies of polluting their environment and causing health hazards in the area that was recently the talk of town owing to widespread killer Cholera disease.

RUJWASCO management revealed they had written to the Water Resources Management Authority seeking their intervention in managing the pollution claims.