The Nairobi City County Assembly Sectoral Committee on Water and Sanitation set about a week- long workshop with the Nairobi Metropolitan Services and Nairobi City Water & Sewerage Company Ltd at Pride Inn Paradise, Mombasa.
This workshop was particularly important since the inception of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) in March 2020, that saw four key functions transferred to the National Government namely; County Public Works, Utilities and Ancillary services included, all in a bid to improve service delivery.
The agenda of the week long convention was to come up with a way forward to provide quality water and sanitation services to the Nairobi residents. The issues discussed included; Water & Sanitation projects, policy bills & regulation, Non-revenue Water, Effluent discharge and finance mobilization, among others.
It was noted that the three key institutions namely; Nairobi Metropolitan services (NMS), Nairobi City County (NCCA) and Nairobi City Water & Sewerage Company (NCWSC) should work harmoniously towards a reliable, affordable and safe water and sanitation service delivery for the benefit of the county residents.
The NCWSC Managing Director, Eng. Nahason Muguna welcomed the members present led by the committee Chair, Hon. James Kiriba .He also enumerated some of the planned and ongoing water projects rolled out across the City.
Abdihakim Mohamed Kahiya, the Secretary in charge of Governance and Ethics at NMS expressed his appreciation for the leaps and bounds in service delivery made by NCWSC over the years and assured the team, of the President and Director Generals’ unwavering support towards prudent resource use and all-inclusive service delivery for the once city in the sun.
Also present was the NCCA majority whip, Hon, Paul Kados, who further committed the Nairobi City County Assembly’s total support in its endeavour to legislate, oversee and approve appropriate motions that are geared towards water infrastructure development that are supportive of sustainable development goals and sanitation.
The workshop was closed with a recap on emerging issues, action planning and way forward. An elaborate 15-point road map was collectively arrived at to help improve water and sanitation service delivery within the city.
Among the topics addressed include; recovery all land parcels and wayleaves earmarked for Water and Sewerage works, review and reactivation of all stalled projects, Enforcement and Crackdown on illegal water connections, carrying out human resource skills inventory through a rigorous audit that will lead to right placement and skills upgrade to enhance productivity and provision for servicing of loans of all completed projects, among other strategies
KENYA COUNTY GOVERNMENT WORKERS UNION HOLDS ELECTIONS
The Kenya County Government Workers Union (Nairobi Branch) recently held elections following the expiry of the terms of the office holders.
The positions that were up for grab are: Branch Secretary, Vice Secretary, Branch Chairman, Vice Chairman, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer and Youth Representative.
The following emerged winners and will serve for a 5-year term: Matilda Jebet Kimetto (Branch Secretary), Moses Murungaru (Vice Secretary), Fred Buluku (Branch Chairman), Charles Makini (Vice Chairman), Treasurer (Patrick Kasimu), Faith Kimemia (Assistant Treasurer), Joseph Ochung (Youth Representative)
A staff member casts her ballot
Unionisable staff members que to vote for their candidates at the Headquarters
MUKURU SIMPLIFIED SEWEWR SYSTEMS PILOT WORK IN PROGRESS
Stakeholders and staff at Mukuru Kwa Reuben during a recent site visit.
In a bid to accelerate simplified sewer technology in peri urban areas in Kenya ,the Company in collaboration with Water & Sanitization for the Urban Poor (WSUP) selected a pilot area within Mukuru kwa Reuben , specifically, Mosque Road, for potential implementation of the simplified sewer systems (SSS). The pilot area comprises of densely occupied informal settlements covering an area of about 0.25 Km2.
The proposed sewer network is about 1.44km of Double Walled Corrugated (DWC) sewer pipes (720m DN100mm & 720m DN150mm) and water network is 1.61Km (1160m OD32mm HDPE & 450m OD50MM HDPE); which the former will be provided by WSUP and NCWSC to provide the water materials through Informal Settlement Region.
Objectives of the sewer and water extensions entail improvement of the water distribution lines to enhance the supply to the customers through prepaid dispensers (PPDs); this will also include the house-hold connections, if applicable.
Extension and improvement of the Sewer network will ensure proper sanitation for the residents and demonstrate how effective simplified sewers can be in addressing sanitation challenges in informal areas.
Despite minor challenges, the expected benefits of the projects will be improved clean water supply, a clean environment which will be enhanced by the proper management of the wastewater & sewer and public health benefits.