Business Daily (Nairobi)
Jim Onyango
23 October 2009
Taps will continue to remain dry in the city despite the current rains, the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company has said, citing insufficient rainfall.
The onset of the rains had raised hope that normal supply would resume to ease the burden on consumers, including manufacturers, who have had to dig deeper into their pockets to buy water from vendors.
But officials of the water company say rationing, which started about four months ago, will not ease because the dams are still not full.
"Our dams are empty, the rains are erratic and we cannot rely on them. We cannot continue normal supplies for now," Ms Gladys Some, the company's corporate affairs co-ordinator, said.
"Our dams have only gone up by two per cent because the rains have not been significant," she said.
Biscuit manufacturer, Manji Foods, says it spends an extra Sh500,000 every month to pay water vendors to deliver the commodity.
Some manufacturing plants, especially food manufacturers have had to cut output because of the water shortage.
The city sources its water from Thika Dam through Ngethu Treatment Works which produces 380,000 cubic meters, Sasumua Dam (56,000 cubic meters), Ruiru Dam via Kabete Treatment Works (56,000 cubic meters) and Kikuyu Springs (4,000 cubic meters). Ndakaini water dam, which supplies over 80 per cent of the water consumed in Nairobi is currently operating at a mere 34 per cent of its capacity and a rise in water levels is not expected soon as rainfall continues to be erratic.
The company started rationing water because most dams were operating below 30 per cent capacity.
"We will not ease the rationing until we get sufficient rains," said Ms Some.
According to the water firm, the dams have only received two per cent of additional water since the rains started.
Nairobi needs 460,000 cubic meters daily but 40 per cent of this is lost through spillage and leakage during supply.
The water firm has had to shelve its plans to launch a subsidiary to bottle water for consumers.
The company had said early last year that it would launch a company that would sell bottled water but has since shelved those plans because of reduced dam levels.
Manufacturers say irregular water supply poses a serious challenge to production in Kenya as it increases costs.
Kenya's manufacturing sector is on a downhill trend with most manufacturers saying they are unable to continue producing profitably due to increasing costs.
According to the Economic Survey 2009, growth in Kenya's manufacturing slowed down in 2008 because of the high cost of inputs such as water and electricity.
Growth in the sector went down to 3.8 per cent in 2008--the lowest in the last five years, compared to a 6.5 per cent growth registered in 2007.
The government has initiated plans to increase water sources following a public announcement calling on the private sector to sink bore holes to ease water supply in Nairobi.
There are plans to add 300,000 cubic meters of water through the bore holes.
But consumers fear that the bid to involve the private sector in public water supplies would increase costs.
The company also blames the city's rapidly increasing population for the water shortage.
Illegal water connections also add to the problem.
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