Nairobi City County and its environs may soon start receiving more water supply once a water collector tunnel project is completed.
The Sh.8.2 billion project being implemented in Murang’a County and supposed to increase water volumes at Ndakaini Dam is currently 97 per cent complete.
Acting Water and Irrigation Cabinet Secretary Mr. James Macharia speaking when inspecting the project at Makombi area on Thursday observed that the remaining three per cent of the tunnel will be hastened to ensure people of Nairobi get more water.
He noted that construction of the tunnel and water treatment plant at Kigoro in Murang’a are complete, pointing out that the only remaining part is to install pipes for the remaining 34.5 kilometres from the treatment plant to Gigiri in Nairobi.
“The contractor has laid pipes from Kigoro treatment plant in 20.7 kilometres out of a total of 55.224 kilometres. The government is committed to ensure the remaining works are completed before July this year,” he said.
Once completed, the project will enable an additional 140 million litres of water to be supplied to Nairobi on a daily basis.
“The increased water supply will be of great relief to more than 1.2 million residents of Nairobi and its environs reducing water deficit,” he stated.
The Northern Water Collector Tunnel project which commenced in February 2015, entailed construction of an 11.8 kilometres raw water transfer tunnel to divert flood flows from rivers Maragua, Gikigie and Irati to Ndakaini dam, main water reservoir for Nairobi County.
Macharia further said 10 million litres of water from the dam will be supplied to residents of Gatanga Sub County where the dam is located.
“People of Gatanga Sub County will also benefit from the tunnel project as more than 10 million litres of water will be supplied to local homesteads.
The CS said Karimenu dam which is under construction will also help to reduce water deficit to Nairobi County citing ever increasing population of the county.
“Nairobi’s water demand currently stands at 810 million litres per day against a supply of 550 million litres with a deficit of 260 million litres,” noted Macharia.
He assured that the government is working out to ensure all bottlenecks hindering smooth progress of the projects are tackled.
“All challenges facing the smooth progress of the project are currently being handled since the government is committed to ensure the people of Nairobi get more water supply,” remarked Macharia adding that plans are there to conserve Aberdare forests which is the main water tower and origin of Murang’a Rivers.
By Bernard Munyao
