Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company (NWSC) has accused Athi Water Works Development Agency (AWWDA) of investing Sh6 billion on a sewage system that does not work.
Correspondences seen by The Sunday Standard also warn that Nairobi residents might have to pay more for water and sewerage services in the next four months.
The Nairobi water company was responding to queries from Water Services Regulatory Board (Wasreb) on why the city dwellers were paying for water based on an expired tariff, and why the city water supplier was lagging behind in loan repayments and an outstanding Sh490 million in unpaid licence fees.
According to NWSC, which relies on AWWDA infrastructure to get water into Nairobi’s homes and offices and pipe sewerage to Dandora Sewerage Plant in Ruai, the Sh6 billion sewerage system was built to flow uphill, which, in the absence of a pumping mechanism, rendered it useless.
Ordinarily, the flow of solid waste within the sewer network is aided by gravity. The city’s sewer lines run downstream to terminate in Ruai – the lowest point of the city.
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The water company also defended its failure to remit millions of shillings in licence fees to Wasreb, citing shrinking revenue and proposing that the price of water and sewerage services be raised.
According to correspondence between NWSC and Wasreb, a new water tariff could be implemented by September this year.
Working at cross-purposes
Confidential documents seen by The Sunday Standard show a case of two firms working at cross purposes, leading to massive wastage of resources and near nil improvement in water and sewerage services in Kenya’s capital.
It has also been disclosed for the first time that the sewerage pumping plant at Ruai has never functioned, and that it broke down as soon as it was commissioned.
“Between 2006 and 2012, Athi Water Works Development Agency used over Sh6 billion in construction of trunk sewers like Kasarani, Kiu River, Mathare and Nairobi River besides Kangemi and Kawangware area but without laterals hence were no-end use impacts,” wrote Nahashon Muguna, NWSC’s acting managing director.
Athi Water owns the water and sewerage infrastructure in Nairobi and Kiambu counties. In the correspondence, Nairobi Water accuses Athi Water of providing some infrastructure that did little to improve delivery of water and sewerage services to city residents.
“It should be noted that most of the investments undertaken by AWWDA have not had the envisaged impact in terms of service provision and no revenue has been generated from these investments therefore straining the company further in repayment of the loans,” wrote Muguna.
So far, Wasreb has not responded to the issues raised by the acting MD in the letter that was also copied to Water Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary.
According to the correspondence, the water company has procured loans from Athi Water, which it has been struggling to repay. The firm blames this on the current water tariffs which it claims are too low and have been denying it the much needed revenue to improve services.
According to the water company, raising the price of water paid by consumers was the only way to increase revenue and make its operations sustainable.
However, such pricing reviews would need approval from Wasreb and should be informed by a study to determine the ability and willingness by consumers to pay the higher costs.
Muguna’s claims paint a picture of agencies pulling from opposite sides instead of working seamlessly to provide better water and sewerage services to city residents.
It partly explains why the city is grappling with broken sewers and water shortage.
In the water company’s self-assessment, the quality of water supplied to Nairobi’s households has remained flat at 93 per cent over the last three years, against a target of 100 per cent.
A dilapidated water and sewerage network has been blamed for compromising the quality of the commodity between the treatment plant and the consumer.
Supply has only marginally increased from an average of six hours a day to 8.72 hours, against the target of 18 hours.
From the correspondence, it has also emerged that only slightly more than a half of the city is covered by the sewerage system.
The city’s water and sewerage infrastructure was designed to last until the year 2000. This, however, continues to be in use 20 years later.
