City floods due to poor planning and building along riparian land

Floods have wreaked havoc in the City over April 2024. [Robert Tomno, Standard]

The frequency with which Kenyans are experiencing atrocious and traumatising flooding is alarming. In the last three weeks, my house has been flooded, damaging items and making us remain awake evacuating the water.

Regrettably and tragically, some Kenyans have died and many others rendered homeless and destitute. Animals, properties and domestic items worth billions have been damaged or lost and infrastructure constructed on unpaid loans is severely damaged because of persistent flooding caused by poor or inexistent drainage systems.

Flooding is not new in Kenya although it has been aggravated by urban overpopulation, informal settlements, and other urban settlements constructed on riparian or riverine areas.

For example, Kibera, the largest informal settlement in Kenya, and Mukuru informal settlements are constructed along the Ngong River while the Nairobi River, runs from the northwest to the southeast of the city crosses through overconstructed Central Business District, overcrowded and overconstructed Mathare, Dandora, and Kibera with its key tributaries such as Ngong River, Mathare River, and Mutuini River converging on Nairobi’s Eastern outskirts, and combining to form larger Athi River that journeys to the Indian Ocean.

The Athi River has burst its banks and flooded homes along it and huge waters from Masinga Dam and upstream have only aggravated the situation. Nairobi City was founded in June 1899 as a railway depot, on the banks of Nairobi River becoming the Capital of Kenya in 1907. 

The first International Conference on Urban Growth and Spatial Planning was held on December 13 - 17, 1988, in Nairobi, where various issues were discussed including flooding in Nairobi and ways to avert it. Proper city planning, efficient drainage, sewerage, and disposal management systems, and ways of dealing with flooding and water management were discussed and recommendations made.

The population of Nairobi was still low but the planning was meant to envisage and accommodate higher populations in future. That was 36 years ago. We are now in the envisaged future and the governance of the city has not addressed these issues comprehensively, instead the situation has worsened.

We still do not have a city-wide proper drainage and sewerage system instead, the national and county governments have been giving permits for construction of houses and buildings on riparian and riverine zones, and without the right infrastructure and systems in place.

This means the buildings/houses constructed on river banks or natural water courses will invariably flood during the rainy seasons because these areas are the natural pathways of water; one cannot move a river or a lake simply by constructing on it or along its banks.

There are known and practised water/land reclamation processes all over the world but this is not what is done in Kenya. Both bad governance and/or corruption have greatly permeated all areas of our society. Sometimes our propensity to harm ourselves beats reason.

For example, Mavoko in Machakos County opposed construction of apartments/houses because they would block the drainage systems and be in riparian areas (River Athi passes through a large part of Machakos County), but the court disagreed and allowed construction.

National and county governments need to plan better and urgently put in place effective and efficient drainage systems in our estates and all the infrastructure including along roads and highways, even if it means constructing dikes in the riparian and riverine areas.

Great leaders are those who love their citizens and constituents and must deliver services to them in line with the hefty taxes they pay. The motto of no taxation without services should be applied.

Proper, effective and efficient water harvesting and utilisation, drainage, sewerage and garbage collection and disposal systems must be put in place immediately and dikes constructed along the constructed river banks and waterways.

The measures the national government is introducing to curb corruption such as digitisation should be supported but they must also be transparently implemented and citizens genuinely involved.