BY ERIC WAMANJI @manjis
Nairobi and Murang’a counties have hit wet, if not watery patches in a duel over water. Murang’a strongly believes, as a natural resource flowing from the slopes, the city should compensate the natives for their heritage. The city is of different school of thought: water is natural, God-given, a public good, never to be sold.
But even as the war of words rages on, the city has to smart on sound water management and sourcing. Indeed, for instance, it will be in the best interest of the city to systematically dismantle the web of cartels that is intricately entrenched in the water supply chain for selfish gain.
Smart Distribution
The strategy too must pay heed to an overhaul of the water distribution network seeking to tame leakages and illegal connections. For instance, leak detection systems will be critical to sense abnormal water flows that defies the regular threshold. Smart metering is working in the UK at domestic levels and can be deployed as much. Factories too must seek to adopt water efficient systems.
Other cities of the world are recycling grey water for line two – washing, watering lawns, construction name it. Indeed, the centrality of recycling in the future metropolis cannot be gainsaid. And it pays. It saves water and money. Today, for instance, Israel, a desert state, recycles almost 85% of her water. The Nairobi and indeed, other cities of the future like Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret or Mombasa, must learn to recycle water.
Indeed, the era of water wastages is long gone and thus it should be sublimely embedded in our schema of scarcity of water and the wisdom to preserve, recycle and protect catchments. That is why Nairobi and upstream counties will do better to collaborate and roll out major projects to protect water catchment areas.
Competition
No doubt, the future of the city is in the countryside. Mark you, Nairobi should be alive to the fact that there is competition for the same water from farmers in the counties. Farmers will always strive to irrigate their lands to feed the city. Recently, we experienced this reality when Ndakaini dam failed to fill, the rains notwithstanding. Clearly, we need a balancing act in the prudent utilisation of this shared critical resource.
And it should not be lost on us that ours is an ever-growing city. Soon, the city will outstretch the existing water infrastructure. If critical preparatory measures are not mooted now, Nairobi may be unlivable. For instance, Daniel Hoornweg and Kevin Pope, of Global Cities Institute, in their report Socioeconomic Pathways and Regional Distribution of the World’s 101 Largest Cities projects that by 2050 Nairobi will have a population of 14 million. Such a megacity to function effectively will require unimpeachable water regime.
To be fair, the Northern Water Collector Tunnel (NWCT), a Sh 6.8 billion project, is steaming ahead. The tunnel is projected to gather a daily volumes of 140 million liters to augment the current water system for Nairobi and Kiambu. But that’s just a tiny drop for a city that is growing into a complex metropolis. We need to crack our heads.