Water Rationing in Nairobi County to Continue

Are you a resident of Nairobi County? Is water flowing into your tap or is it still dry?

With the rains that were experienced in the past weeks, Nairobi County residents were hopeful that water will once again start flowing in their taps, but that will not be the case as stated by Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company as the main source for the city has not yet received enough water.

According to Raphael Nzomo, Board Chair of Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company, the water level at Ndakaini Dam which is their main water supplier is still only at 33 percent.

“We were hoping that it could reach its previous levels. If it continues this way we will probably reach the 50 percent mark which is only sufficient to take us through to September when we expect the next rains,” said Mr. Nzomo.

Nzomo noted that they had promised city residents that water will be back by end of April, which was not the case as they had expected the heavy rains to have started at that time but it took longer.

“We had announced last month that residents would start receiving normal supply by April but this has not happened as the rains have been erratic,” Mr. Nzomo said while encouraging city dwellers to conserve sufficient water.

Nairobi County gets 80 percent of its water from Ndakaini Dam. Water levels in the dam had dropped 24 percent in April but with the rains that have been experienced in the previous weeks, there is hope as the levels have now got up to 33 percent.

The County Government of Nairobi begun rationing water in early January where most parts of the city have been receiving water once a week. The weatherman had predicted that the water crisis will reduce this month with the onset of the rains but the situation appears to be getting worse.

The national government through the Ministry of Water and Irrigation promised to sink at least 40 boreholes across the city to help address the situation but ever since the promise, the work of sinking the boreholes has not begun.