Brace for water supply interruption for the next two days

Nairobi residents will experience an interruption of water supply following the shutting down of the City’s main water treatment plant.

Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) acting Managing Director Nahashon Muguna announced that a number of estates would be affected for two days following the shutting down of Ng’ethu treatment plant, which serves 85 per cent of Nairobi’s population.

He explained that the shutdown had been occasioned by heavy rainfall of more than 79mm in the Aberdare Ranges, the facility’s main catchment area. This, he said, resulted in increased river flow, causing high turbidity, which is the reduction in water clarity due to presence of suspended particles, thus clogging the system.

“There has been increased river flow causing very high turbidity in the raw water, which is flowing slurry and is suspected to be caused by a landslide upstream. This has necessitated closing of the water treatment plant to avoid transmission of water that does not meet the World Health Organisation standards,” said Mr Muguna in a statement.

Muguna noted that the raw water currently flowing into the treatment plant had failed to respond to the chemicals used to treat it.

He, however, said they would do everything possible to ensure normalcy returned.

“We are unclogging the intake before we restart production,” he said. 

Nairobi is currently receiving water from Sasumua, Kikuyu Springs and Ruiru Dam, but this is just 15 per cent of what is needed in the city. 

“We request all customers to use their stored water sparingly,” said Muguna.