Though it is a dusty and dry season in Nakuru, one feature that is impossible to miss at Isalaasha Bush Camp Resort in Gilgil Sub-County is the lush lawn.
A rich and pleasant aroma of an assortment of flowers welcomes you at the lodge, stashed in Elementaita, 15 kilometers off the Nairobi-Nakuru, where scores of workers are busy building what the management says will be the first eco-tourist lodge in Nakuru County.
Recycled water flowing from washrooms, bathrooms and kitchens has turned this resort in one of the driest parts of Nakuru into a small paradise all year round as the management can now afford to water its lawns, flower gardens and a small orchard twice every week. They are not incurring extra on electricity costs as solar energy is being used to pump the water.
According to a water sanitation and wastewater treatment engineer, Ndegwa Mahinda, who is overseeing the construction of 25 cottages at a cost of over Shs 30 million, the 5 cottages that are fully complete feature architectural designs, allow enough natural light and provide for waste water recycling and solar roofing tiles to cut energy costs, to curb pollution and for sustainability.
Engineer Mahinda, a former supervisor with Los Angeles Sanitation Districts Agency indicates that the resort that has put in place a system that harvests rainwater for use in the laundry and garden will also feature an artificial water park.
In constructing the cottages solid waste, discarded glass and bottles are being turned into cheaper and more durable products such as driveway blocks, window blinds, walkway slabs and fencing posts that are durable and are not prone to vandalism.
Engineer Mahinda says his passion for recycling waste is driven by the critical need to have a clean environment.
He adds: “Discarded beer, soft drinks and mineral water bottles are not being handled right. In turning waste into cheap, readily available, durable and attractive building materials, this project is striving to make the world a better place environmentally. In so doing, we are seeking to reduce and convert the waste into more reliable and environmentally friendly tools of construction while also creating employment,”
He says County Governments should remain alive to the fact that as Kenya’s population grows and living standards improve increasing volumes of waste water, effluent are being discharged untreated into the environment causing major health and pollution threats and further reducing the amount of available water for drinking and agriculture.
More than 80 percent of the world’s wastewater is dumped in the environment without treatment, especially in poor countries, according to a recent United Nations report that called wastewater the ‘untapped resource’.
“The world is going green and we have to follow suit because even if we do not embrace technology, it will catch up with us eventually,” he explained.
The system he says, recycles water and sewage into clean usable water that can be used for the outdoors and toilet flushing, adding “the water is not good for human consumption until it goes through another purification process,”
The system treats the water in batches and it is wholly biological, translating to lower power consumption and high treatment efficiency.
According to him, waste water is collected into a preinstalled underground septic tank.
The water is then pumped into the sanitization tank where it stays for six hours as the purification process takes place. It is then pumped into the clean water collection tank and then supplied around the resort through a reticulation system
Engineer Mahinda states that the sludge recovered from recycled waste water is extremely valuable and can be converted into methane and organic fertilizer.
He notes that the fact that the system is solar-powered means it is low cost.
To demonstrate magnitude of the ‘wastage’ of drinkable water Engineer Mahinda explains that a standard cistern holds 9 litres of water and is flushed at-least 12 times in an average home per day.
“Toilet flushing takes up a lot of water and recycling can cut the monthly bills and ensure you have constant flow in the cisterns .If an apartment has 50 families that translates to 5,800 litres being flushed down the drain without factoring in waste water from the kitchen, and bathrooms,”
He indicates that most industries, homes and tourist resorts are spending a lot of money on exhauster services as waste water ends up in the septic tanks, which fill up quite often.
The recycled water at the Isalaasha Bush Camp Resort is also being used for interior ornamental plants, landscaping, washing cars, cleaning the cottages and washing pavements. Engineer Mahinda further points out that solar panels at Isalaasha Bush Camp Resort heat the bath water, swimming pool and the interior of the cottages.
According to Engineer Mahinda ,with recycled water one saves freshwater intake costs estimated at 30 to 40 percent and adds that reclaiming wastewater for reuse is also good for the environment as it reduces sewer pollution.
In the era of climate change and water scarcity, he says this is the system industries, homes and institutions should embrace to sustain their operations and keep their compounds clean.
He adds: “Despite the growing benefits of Eco-homes, there are still very few new environmentally-sensitive housing in Kenya, save for a few commercial buildings with water harvesting and recycling systems, solar panels and large windows. Every year billions of gallons of wastewater are discharged, yet it can be used to keep cities green. We can use the recycled water for irrigating botanical gardens, residential green spaces, golf courses, kitchen gardens, and also for indoor use such as toilet flushing. There is no reason why city dwellers should lack water in the toilet yet we can recycle,
The need for homeowners to conserve water and energy has never been greater. To make our cities greener, we have to start recycling,”
Isalaasha Bush Camp Resort is also equipped with an inverter system for power backup in each cottage with a four-hour capacity in case of black outs and also low-energy lighting.
“The objective of our design is to conserve the environment around us by curbing noise pollution from generators that’s why we incorporated the inverter option, as well as air pollution that has been reduced by recycling our sewage and water,” Engineer Mahinda explains.
He suggests it was time Kenya looked at water recycling on a large scale as a viable option to tackle the water problem in the country .Policies that promote use of recycled water in agriculture, Engineer Mahinda notes, will go a long way in ensuring water is kept in the social system for as long as possible.
He explains that both levels of government can consider policies that create irrigated agriculture zones next to centralized sewage treatment works that would use recycled water and be run under strict guidelines.
“To support the water recycling agenda, policies that make it mandatory for buildings to have separate lines for the toilets and drinking water should be considered where recycled water can then be used for flushing toilets.
Wastewater management and recycling will reduce pollution to water sources such as rivers, and groundwater and this would make such water bodies available for irrigation,” Engineer Mahinda points out.
World Water Development Report 2019 states that agriculture-including irrigation, livestock and aquaculture-is by far the largest water consumer, accounting for 69 percent of annual water withdrawals globally while Industry-including power generation-on the other hand accounts for 19 percent and households for 12 percent.
Engineer Mahinda adds: “Investment in modern wastewater treatment and recycling technologies and infrastructure, enforcement of existing regulations on wastewater management, expansion of existing sewer lines and educating the masses on the water shortage the country faces and how recycled water can supplement the shortage should complement the establishment of new policies and regulations that make water recycling attractive”
Infrastructure that would encourage water recycling at the domestic level, he suggests, should entail ensuring that homes are connected to a proper sewer line that would deliver the wastewater to a central wastewater treatment works where the sewage can be treated and recycled.
Where it is not possible to connect a home to a sewer line, he says, each home should be mandated to invest in a domestic wastewater treatment plant or smaller decentralized systems set up to serve estates or property developments.
“Currently, a small system that can serve up to eight people will cost between Sh350,000 and Sh500,000, and will give out up to 1,000litres of clean water a day. For a large system that can serve up to 200 people in a commercial unit, the cost will range from Sh2million to Sh9million and will give up to 20,000litres of water daily. With the turn of events and significant reduction of water, people will have to look for alternatives,” argues Engineer Mahinda.
He however cautions that before installing a waste water management system, there are a few procedures to follow. An individual should have an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) done before construction commences or have a variation done to see that they comply with the EIA.
They also have to apply to the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) to have the system installed, a process that will cost about Sh30,000.
“The cost may seem to be much but it is worth it because it is something that is permanent. You only spend once. Recycling wastewater is less expensive and uses up less energy than desalinating sea water, which is considered another solution against water scarcity,” says Mahinda
