Hopes that the last few days of downpours will ease the water shortage and rationing have been dashed. Despite heavy rains in Nairobi and its environs, the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company yesterday called the precipitation “insignificant” and said it won’t raise the level in Ndakaini Dam.
“Nothing thematic really. Ndakaini is still at 24 per cent. It only rains in Nairobi, not in the catchment areas,” corporate communications officer Mbaruku Vyakweli said yesterday.
The city has been experiencing acute water shortage since January after the level dropped to a record low of 24 per cent. The level dropped seven per cent in January alone.
Ndakaini supplies 84 per cent of the city’s water. The sharp decline has been caused by drought in the Aberdares, Kikuyu and Mt Kenya regions, the main water catchments for rivers feeding the dam.
“We are only praying that rains continue to fall because the situation is really bad. We cannot say we will ration further, but we will do our normal review in two weeks,” Vyakweli told the Star on the phone.
Residents need 750,000 cubic metres of water per day, but the company now supplies less than 400,000.
Last week, the county and the Ministry of Water launched a Sh200 million project to sink 40 boreholes in three weeks as a short-term measure.
The boreholes will provide about 800,000 litres per day.
Last Friday, Nairobi Water executive Peter Kimori said the county has budgeted for an additional 21 boreholes in this financial year.
“We have realised surface water will not help us much. That is why we are now exploring other options and underground water has proven viable. We are going to drill high-yielding wells in areas around Ruai that will supply to the rest of the city,” he said.
There are about 76 boreholes in the city owned by the NCWSC.