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The target of reducing by half the number of people without access to clean water and sanitation by 2015 was adopted in the final action plan at the end of the summit. Joseph Nyamwange, a Kenyan Journalist, observes that papers were presented and blue prints inaugurated but the question remains: Will ‘ Waterdome’ prompt African governments to act before its too late? In this very revealing master- piece Nyamwange exposes the reality ordinary Kenyans are faced with sparking a major irony, where us living amidst major water resources for years Clean water has alluded many.
The focus of the recent 10-day world summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg, South Africa was water. Over 2,500 delegates converged at the Waterdome, which was inaugurated by former South African president Nelson Mandela. The statistics presented at the Water- Dome were grim. Over one billion people, or 18 percent of the world’s population, lack access to safe drinking water and over 2.4 billion people are without basic sanitation.
The target of reducing by half the number of the people without access to clean water and sanitation by 2015 was adopted in the final action plan at the end of the summit. Papers were presented and blueprints inaugurated but the question remains: Will Water-Dome prompt African governments to act before it is too late?
In Kenya, for instance, where poverty has reached alarming levels, there is a direct link between the way water resources are managed and standards of living in the country. The capital, Nairobi, with a population of well over two million people, has been reeling from perennial water shortages with no tangible solutions in sight. The 100-year-old city, ironically was founded by the colonial government on account of its abundance of fresh water (Nairobi comes from a Maasai word meaning a place of cool waters.) Where us Nairobi, already the leading industrial and commercial metropolis of the region, is expanding rapidly both in area and population, little is being done to improve its water and sanitation services. There are only two water sources of water supply –Sasumua Dam established before independence, and Ndakaini, which was built in 1991-to serve the city centre, residential estates and satellite towns which have become town of their own. Business premises in the city centre have learnt to cope with dry taps, with many contracting private water hawkers to deliver water in tankers, pick-ups and handcrafts. Restaurants, fast food outlets and bars are the most affected, as the nature of their business requires amounts of water. Because of the water shortage sanitation is also in a sorry state. Most restaurants and fast food outlets have no toilet facilities and customers know better than to ask for them. Moving out of the city centre, the residential areas have a similar story to tell. People in, for instance, Langa’ta, one of the middle class estates nearest, town, have given up on running taps. Although the estate is situated next to the Nairobi dam, a large reservoir containing thousands of liters of water whose only use seems to be breed mosquitoes and the water hyacinth the residents have to rely on water from Sasumua in Nyadarau district, over 80kilometers away.
The capital’s satellite towns, whose residents commute to work in the city, have a worse problem. In spite of affordable housing, they face the problems of the slum areas of town. They not only lack piped water but even a sewerage system. Areas like Ngong, Onga’ta Rongia, Ruai and Athi River are expanding rapidly to ease congestion in the cities residential estates, but water and sanitation problems are making them less and less attractive. Apart from Athi River, which has piped water (whose supply is erratic) because of the presence of the Export Processing Zone, the rest have to make do with salty borehole water that is not only extremely expensive but also delivered under unhygienic conditions by handcraft vendors. It is also ironic here that towns like Athi river-next to Kenya’s second largest river, the Athi and home to the EPZ, Kenya’s fastest growing sector, not to mention two large cement factories-should depend on water from Ndakani in Muranga district, over 100 kilometers away. Nor do any of the satellite towns have sewerage systems. They have to rely on septic tanks, most of them mere depressions in the ground covered with concrete slabs. Because of there relatively cheap rents these areas have attracted low-to lower-middle-income wokers who hope to make savings on housing only to find themselves spending small fortunes on water. This puts them in the same league with major Nairobi slums like Kibera, Mathare Korogocho, Kamgemi and Mukuru, where toilet facilities are more expensive than food. A research on poverty eradication in Kibera last year showed that toilet facilities cost Ksh5 (6US cents) per visit per family member, regardless of the nature of the call. It costs a slum dweller dearly to carter for a child with a running stomach! Nairobi is not alone; the story is the same in many other Kenyan towns. Kisumu, which is in the process of being given city status, has never known the joys of consistent running water for decades, in spite of being on a water front of Africa’s largest freshwater lake. The stench that welcomes visitors to the town says it all. Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest town soon to be made city too, again is a case of water everywhere but not a drop to drink. Many rivers from the up-country empty their waters into the Indian Ocean not far from Mombasa, but the town’s residents view clean water as a rare commodity. The story is the same in Nakuru, Eldoret, Nyeri and Kakamega not to mention the towns in semi-arid north of the country. The question is: Is the perennial shortage of clean drinking water caused by a shortage of water per se in the Country?
[03.12.2002 – www.rio10.dk]
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