Africanews
The acute shortage of water in Kisumu town exposes residents to diseases, exploitation by water vendors and wastage of time in search for it usually at a distance. The water problem is not only confined to Kisumu alone but the country at large and even worldwide. |
Kisumu town, situated in Nyanza Province has great demand for water but the supply is limited. It is a precious commodity that is sought all day by residents of the affected estates.
It is however ironical that Kisumu should experience water shortage, the town being at the shores of the second largest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Victoria. Take for example Migosi built over 10 years ago. This is a middle- income residential area. It adorns maisonnettes and bungalows but the residents are yet to witness at a cost of Ksh 5 per jerican. Those. who cannot afford to buy this water use wheelbarrows or carry it on the head for a distance of even up to two kilometres.
When there is an important event taking place in town, like say an agricultural show, the price of water goes up, even to as much as Ksh. 20 per jerican. Mrs. Alice Odhiambo who is resident in the estate confirms that since she move to the estates nine years ago, she has not seen water flow form the taps in her house. "Since I rely on the water vendors, I use between Ksh 3000 (US$ 55) and Ksh. 4000 (US$ 73) on water alone per month and when it is completely out of supply I use between Ksh 6000 to 8000 per month.
She observes that the water is not always safe , because sometimes these vendors sell contaminated water and that she must always boil water for drinking. A vendor, Mr. Samuel Onyango says the water business is lucrative and he sometimes ends up making Ksh. 1000 per day.
Responding to the complaints that the charges are exorbitant, Mr. Onyango says that the work involved is also very tiring, because when there is an acute shortage they have to travel a distance of even three Kilometres to get this precious commodity. He says he and his colleagues try very much to sell clean water but the water could get contaminated when ferried to be sold to residents.
This water problem may take some time to solve as it is estimated that the town can only supply half of its population of 600,000 with water. Though the demand for water in the town currently stands at about 40,000 cubic metres per day, the Municipal Council can supply 18,000 cubic metres per day.
It is estimated that 25 per cent of what the council supplies is lost through leakages due to poor maintenance of pipes which have since become old and need replacement. According to the water and sewage general manager at Kisumu Municipal Council, Mr. Maurice Wandia, Kisumu needs an additional water intake point to boost its current capacity which has been overstretched by the current population and industries that have sprung up in Kisumu and its environs over the years.
Water consumption in Kenya is estimated at nearly 600 million cubic metres per a year. About 69 per cent is used in agriculture, 18 per cent domestic use and 13 per cent in industry.
A just published book "Governance of Water Resources in Kenya" states that although the government has made efforts to make safe water available only a small proportion of the population has access to such supplies most of which is concentrated in the urban centres.
The book, authored by Cleophas O, Torori and Alison Field of African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and Albert O. Mumma of the University of Nairobi, states that with the rise in Kenya's population, the pressure on existing supplies and demand for additional water has also grown.
This book, which was launched during a two-day workshop organised by ACTS with support from the Ford foundation says that Kenya is facing a water crisis ad recommends that the government should involve the community and estate owners in water management.
Statistics show that a billion people lack access to clean water worldwide and the United Nations estimates say that 80 per cent of the diseases that afflict developing countries are caused by dirty water. These diseases which include typhoid, cholera and dysentry, kill about 10 million people in developing countries annually.
According to Word Bank sources, over 80 countries with 40 per cent of the word's population already experience water shortages that now threaten their agriculture, industry and health. The World Bank notes that this problem has an awful potential of dealing a blow to the economic lives of the countries.
Specialists say that one per cent of the earth's water is available for consumption, which means that it could support 20 billion people, or nearly four times the present world population. But the problem is that water supplies are so unevenly distributed around the world that some countries are nothing short of big parches of desert.
For developing countries achieving clean water for all remains elusive largely due to poor economic performance. In addition, because of the population growth averaging about 250,000 people per day, more that one billion people are still without access to safe water. Some 1.7 billion have inadequate sanitation facilities.
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