Nairobi Residents Set to Face an Acute Water Shortage

Nairobi City County Government has said that the rationing of water come the month of January is inevitable and that residents of Nairobi should be prepared and avoid misuse of water.

The water shortage, according to Nairobi City County Government, is as a result of low water capacity at Ndakaini Dam and which is set to be prolonged because the four rivers flowing into the dam have reduced in terms of water volume.

Nearly 85 percent of water that is used in Nairobi and its environs comes from Ndakaini Dam and in the previous years, a time like now, the dam is usually full.

At the moment, the dam is said to have only 45 percent of water of its capacity which is far much below the usual capacity at such a time which is usually 80 percent full and able to sufficiently satisfy residents of Nairobi for six months.

With the water rationing underway, some of the businesses within Nairobi and its environs are set to be affected. Already authorities have told those who might be affected to be prepared.

People who carry out car washing business will have to cut down on the usage of water. The County Government has even called on them to stop carrying out the business in order to converge the little water that is available. This is set to hit hard on those who depend on the business for livelihood.

City’s small scale flower farmers are also likely to be affected. Those who usually use water from the City County to water their flowers will have to endure a prolonged dry spell if they want to conserve water.

This also implies that education institutions as well as hospitals will be affected too. Already schools and hospitals are being urged to start saving water before the beginning of the year

The Nairobi County Government has also called on residents to use water sparingly and store any little water that they have before the rationing.

In other business news from Nairobi, hawkers have complained on what they term as unnecessary harassing from the County Government askaris, commonly known as Kanjo.

The hawkers say that despite numerous concerns being raised through the media on the plight of hawkers in the hands of the kanjos, little has been done by the authority involved to help them.

They say that the officers have been arresting them without reason and demanding for money from them and that their calls to Governor Evans Kidero to help them has often fallen on deaf ears.