Intense disquiet is growing among employees of two water utilities in Nakuru County over plans to merge the two following a damning report of under-performance from the Public Investment and Accounts committee at the Nakuru County Assembly.
The 200 employees allied to the County Government Workers Union, Nakuru Water and Sewerage Company branch are accusing the Committee of misinformation and witch hunt are now demanding that the County`s executive rejects a recommendation for a merger that they said if implemented would render many jobless.
Addressing reporters at the NAWASCO offices in Nakuru on Wednesday morning, the employees through the Union`s Chairman, Zephania Nyambane want the area governor, Lee Kinyanjui and the committee to fast track pending bills worth over Sh.300 million owed by the County Government as at last month to stream line operations.
Nyakundi said the committee had last week made the recommendation after it established that NAWASCO and Nakuru Rural Water and Sewerage (NARUWASCO) Companies were operating at losses amounting to billions of shillings annually despite adequate rate payer funding.
The Union Chairman who terms the report as politically motivated refutes claims of losses saying the report that makes the recommendation does not reflect facts about efficiency and viability as is documented on audited books of accounts as at May 2019.
The Union`s Secretary General, Christopher Makohka wants the Committee to help the water bodies realise its target of supplying 70, 000 up from the current 40,000 cubic meters of clean water a day by developing funding policies that would facilitate development of water reservoirs that could scale up the bodies efficiency.
He said the move would help to recover 40 per cent of water revenue lost to non-revenue water annually.
By Jane Ngugi/Dennis Rasto
