By Pascal Mwandambo

When Aloyce Lenjo retired as a hotelier and settled at Tanzania Estate in Voi, Taita–Taveta County about five years ago, he enjoyed a blissful life, for then, there was plenty of water. The sewage worked perfectly and water flowed in plenty.

Among his monthly bills was the water bill which Mr Lenjo, a shopkeeper, dutifully paid. But now, that state of affairs seems like a dream from another world. The water bill still comes, but there is no drop of water.

The water pipes have become rusty. Not one to easily give up, Lenjo regularly turns on the water taps, but a rude hissing sound meets him; not a drop of water.

To cope with this state of affairs, Lenjo’s household was forced to look for alternatives of collecting and storing water. In the process, they bought many jerricans whose presence in the home has taken room and left the house looking not so organised or beautiful.

“After much suffering we slowly began to adapt to the situation, however inconveniencing. So we purchased more than 20 jerricans for buying and storing water,” says Lenjo.

Heavy losses

It is not easy to fill the jerricans. His family spends a lot of time searching for water, which eats into their time of doing other domestic chores.

“Every day we spend some Sh400 on water. The agony is that at the end of every month we have to pay hefty water bills for water we have not used. Something is wrong somewhere,” laments Lenjo.

The situation is the same at the neighbouring Kariokor, where residents are go through a lot of hardships in their search for water.

Residents wake up at 5am to begin looking for water which they ferry home on pick-ups, boda boda motorcycles, bicycles and pushcarts as well as on their heads and backs.

Kariokor resident and former civic leader Rashid Mtwana blames corruption for the water woes bedevilling the town and its environs.

Mr Mtwana spends about Sh700 daily on water both for his family and a pre-school institute he runs in the neighbourhood. He says he believes that some unscrupulous business people in the town are responsible for the rampant water shortages.

“Why is it that after water shortages are reported some business people come in handy with huge tankers and begin selling water to the residents at inflated prices? Where do they get this water while the rest of us cannot get even a drop in our taps?” wonders Mtwana.

Voi business lament that their businesses are suffering heavy losses due to lack of water.

Running water

A businessman who runs a guest house with more than 400 rooms says he spends up to sh2,000 daily on water, and is concerned about other business premises in his neighbourhood which get water throughout.

“They always have running water even when there is rationing of the commodity, which leaves me wondering why we should have this case of double standards,” says he.

To circumvent the water shortage issue, some business people have installed huge underground tanks that store a lot of water leading to shortages in the neighboring premises.

The managing director of Taita-Taveta Water and Sewerage Company (Tavevo) Peter Shwashwa said they had launched a crackdown on all business premises with illegal connections to the mains water supply.

“The law stipulates that a domestic water supply pipe should not be bigger than half an inch and those with illegal connections bigger than this will have their supplies disconnected and action taken against them,” says Mr Shwashwa.

Shwashwa admitted that Voi town was facing the worst water shortages in the county and blamed outdated infrastructure for the situation.

Old pipeline

“Voi town and other sections of Coast are served by a 32-inch pipeline which was put up in 1952. They are getting serious water shortages because of the fast growing populations which has not been matched  with an equal increase in water supply. The Mzima pipeline is now very old and frequent leaks and bursts are occurring which lead to water shortages,” says Shwashwa.

He pointed out that the World Bank through the Coast Water Services Board had provide Sh120 million to put up a second water pipeline from the main Mzima supply to serve Voi residents.

“The project could be complete by December and will see the Voi water supply doubled from the current 2.5 million litres to five million litres of water per day,” he said, adding that Voi town requires at least 5.5 million litres of water per day during normal consumption and up to 6.8 million litres during peak consumption.

A new water project, Msinga Two, is soon going to be connected from the main Mzima pipeline from Msinga area near Tsavo East National Park.

“Residents of Sofia village who will be affected by the pipeline have already been compensated Sh2.2m and have expressed willingness to create room for the water pipeline to pass through their plots to pave way for the project,” said Eng Ngoyanae Kimaro of Tavevo.

He said that the project, once completed, will drastically reduce water shortages in Voi and its environs.