Nairobi residents urged to report illegal water disconnections

Nairobi residents have been urged not to hesitate in reporting incidences of illegal water disconnections.

According to Karen Nyamu, who is a board member of the Nairobi Water Company, some leaders within the county are colluding with water cartels to deliberately disconnect water pipes running to residential areas.

This comes days after Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko blamed Matopeni MCA Abdi Guyo over taking part in illegal water disconnections in his own ward.

“They have to help us even as we continue with the crackdown on this illegal disconnections happening in our estates,” Karen who is also an advocate of the High Court told journalists in Nairobi.

The war on illegal water disconnections in the county has seen Sh 12,907,647 recovered as penalties and Sh 3,199,000 as court fines at the Nairobi’s City Court.

The County Government launched a major crackdown on water cartels early last year, leading to 1834 illegal water disconnections 232 prosecutions and 893 connections having been regularized.

“We Shall continue with these disconnections until the cartels are eliminated. Of course the best way to deal with cartels is to ensure we meet and exceed the demand of water in the city,” Karen said.

Meanwhile the lawyer believes that Nairobi is on the right track in terms of achieving optimum levels in water connectivity and high sanitation levels.

She said that the measures put in place by the county government and the Nairobi Water Company will lead to full realization of safe, clean and reliable water flow in the city estates.

The county set aside Sh 2.7 billion for the environment water and sewerage infrastructure in the current financial year.

From this amount, Sh 362 million will cater for water resources management.

“We are having a water deficit of around 250,000 cubic meters from and the programs rolled out will see this deficit go down,” Karen said.