An acute water shortage has hit parts of Kwale town and its environs as taps remained dry for the second week running.
The Kwale Governor, Salim Mvurya has assured residents that water supply will resume in Kwale town on Thursday following the fixing of two broken pumps that caused massive leakages.
He said two key pumps had broken down several days ago causing a shortage in the area.
“We had challenges but our technical team fixed it last night and residents should expect water in their taps from today onwards,” he said.
He made the remarks on Thursday at Mvindeni county offices during a courtesy call by the Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) led by the Chairman and former Laikipia Governor, Joshua Irungu.
The Governor also pledged to continually tackle the water shortages in Kwale County through budgetary allocation, adding that Kwale Water and Sewerage Company (KWAWASCO) had inherited huge debts from the past governments and was still struggling to pay them.
“We will continue to support KWAWASCO so that it is able to stand on it’s own to supply adequate water to Kwale people,” he said.
He urged the company to improve its revenue collection, improve quality, and seal loopholes by ending illegal connection and so on.
“We are tackling the water problem in the drier areas especially in Kinango sub-county by building large dams like Mwakalanga, Nyalani, Kizingo among others,” he said.
He added ‘we have also put a new line from Marere to Kinango at a cost of Sh.100 million and from next year, we shall improve it at an additional cost of Sh.300 million,” he said.
The Coast Water Works Development Agency Chairman, Mustafa Idd who is former Kilifi South MP said his organization will support Kwale County.
He said the semi-autonomous agency’s main responsibility is the provision of efficient water and sanitation services to the residents of the coastal region.
Meanwhile, residents of Trans Nzoia County will face acute shortage of water for a longer time after criminals vandalised the main pipe that transmit water from Kabolet treatment plant to the main tank in Kitale town and its environs.
Speaking to KNA in his office on Thursday, the NZOWASCO Managing Director, Tom Musundi said though his office has already purchased the pipe, customers will miss water for more days as his team work to reconnect the water.
“The big valve that brings water to town was vandalised by unknown people and water was spilling along the way making customers miss water,” said Musundi
He added that the vandalised pipe has been in use since 2007 and customers have never experienced any water shortage since then.
“We have never had interruptions arising from vandalism of our systems, which are located along the road reserve, this came in as a shock,” he said.
It is estimated that over 200,000 people in the region who access piped water have been affected by the vice.
Business owners and schools are hit harder because of the numbers they deal with as they fetch water in boreholes and nearby rivers.
“We are forced to buy water at Sh. 40 for a 20litre Jerrican which is not enough for domestic use,” said Chris Wekesa, a resident.
By KNA Team
