The new board of Tana Water Works Development Agency has decried high losses of treated water incurred by many water providers.
The Board led by its chairman Eng. Wahome Mwangi has said many water companies within the agency’s jurisdiction were operating at loss due to non-revenue water.
Some of infrastructure of the water companies were old and need rehabilitation so as to curtail water losses occasioned by bursting of water pipes and leakages, Mwangi observed.
Speaking when the Board’s members visited Murang’a Water and Sanitation Company Mwangi said they would form an inter-agency team which would embark on finding out challenges faced by the water providers and come up with ways to mitigate them.
“As a board, we will synergize and form a team tasked to look into challenges being faced by water companies within our jurisdiction and come out with solutions to mitigate the problems,” said Mwangi.
He observed that infrastructure network of many of the companies could not facilitate last mile water connectivity.
“We will also look at the already existing water infrastructure with the aim to change them so as to have bigger pipes which can deliver more water volume to serve many people,” added the Chairman.
He explained that the agency was also looking for ways to establish small local water firms which would help in provision of clean water for domestic use.
“Instead of investing in mega dams, we are considering to establish small water projects which will cost less and help in realizing last mile water connectivity,” he added.
Meanwhile, the chairman lauded projects initiated by Murang’a Water and Sanitation Company (Muwasco) saying they were helping the company generate more revenue.
“We appreciate efforts by Muwasco to establish water bottling plant which helps the company generate more revenue to meet costs of production,” noted Mwangi.
Muwasco started bottling water three years ago and the raised revenue helps the company meet production costs after water tariffs were reduced through intervention of the county government.
Mwangi challenged other water companies within the agency’s jurisdiction to come up with projects which would help in generation of more revenue.
Meanwhile, the chairman said the process of transferring assets of the water companies to county governments as directed by Water Services Regulatory Board (Wasreb) would take some time before it was effected.
Mwangi said assets of the companies belonged to various stakeholders thus the need for enough time to do evaluation before the assets were fully transferred to respective county governments.
By Bernard Munyao
