LONG POST ALERT...

I raised the issue of Thwake dam here on post number 139.

Now, the Nation Media house is highlighting the issue. I commend the journalist Mr. Paul Wafula for investigating the matter and reporting it. However, i fault his style of writing because he has put alot of kizungu mingi in that article instead of telling long-suffering and peace loving Kenyans what his research yielded. One would have expected to hear for example the amount of lead and other toxins found in Baricho water treatment plant in Malindi. For those who don't know, Baricho serves the whole of Kilifi county and parts of Mombasa county. It is highly possible that middle class wazuans have drank their own poopoo when holidaying in Mombasa...but i digress.

According to Paul, Thwake is 10 times the size of Ndakaini dam. It is expected to serve atleast 15 million Kenyans. The main source of water for this dam is a no brainer. We cross the tributaries of River Athi/Galana/Sabaki everyday and we see how murky it is and feel how awful it smells.

It pains me that the Kenyan government current Minister for Environment has not made a statement about this looming crisis. The epic lethargy of the gentleman at the helm of Mazingira house's is unmatched. We all know his scorecard as the Director of Public Prosecution.(i speak in code).

Unfortunately, it seems like the attitude by Jubilee government and past governments has been... "NOT OUR MONKEY, NOT OUR CIRCUS". Basically, H.E. Uhuru's government is telling us(watu ya Eastern and Coast) to sit in the corner quietly and Kula jeuri yetu pole pole and wait for Thwake waters to kill us all.

Mnataka nifanye nini jameni?

Sonko has tried, but he cannot win the war alone. Dr. Alfie Mutua head honcho at Machakos county has made noise about the pollution of river Athi to the extent of being dramatic(sinema) about it, but as expected he has been ignored and even ridiculed? It is underastandable that this gentlemen have their roots in lower Eastern and have to take care of the interest of Andu mbaitu.

So what is the solution?

I suggest that NEMA and the Minister stop cooling their balls in air-conditioned offices in Nairobi and map out all the spots/points sewage and heavy metals make their way into all rivers that feed the Athi and publicly list them so that Kenyans know which company pollutes the river or which residents of Karen dispose their faeces into the river. Kenyans should not buy products of any company that pollutes the river.

Hefty monetary penalties and possible jail term should be imposed to anyone or any factory found to be polluting the river.

Secondly, Nairobi county government/National government should build new sewage lines in Mathare,Korogocho, Dandora, Kibera etc now that the we have all accepted that Slums in Nairobi are a national pride and a tourist attraction.

Lastly, i suggest that the Sonko initiative of ridding the river of garbage and dead bodies receive more funding so that this job can be done daily as in, kila siku ya wiki until these rivers become cleaner.

I derive solace from an illustration i once saw at the British Museum in my formative years as a student. See below




The illustration above titled "Monster soup" was a satirical representation of River Thames and what the artist thought Londoners were being served by water companies then. I would imagine River Thames then was as filthy as Nairobi river is today if not worse. However, after years of law enforcement by the British equivalent of NEMA the Thames is cleaner today. Inawezekana na itawezekana if we just got serious just a little bit.

Charity Ngilu's silence on this matter is deafening. Meanwhile in Indonesia it is no longer domo domo but action in cleaning the World most polluted river, the Citarum.(google is my friend)

LINK

I thought after that Jicho Pevu report something would be done about the polution pouring into the rivers but I see we are still at the same place.

I disagree with what you have stated. The journalist provided evidence of higher than average harmful bacteria/algae/heavy metals at Thwake. Also, the raw sewage from Nairobi slums is not treated before it spills into the river.

Once again, i commend Mr. Wafula and Nation Media for highlighting this issue. The ball is now on the government, civil society and wananchi to act. In Mombasa, if your house spills raw sewage and you refuse to fix it, your neighbors will koroga cement at the point where there is a spill causing a backflow to your house/tenants house. I suggest that our rough neck governor of Nairobi adopt these tactics and teach greedy landlords/factory owners of Nairobi a lesson. We cannot continue like this...hii ujinga lazima iishe

The green colour is due to algae growth, which means the water quality is good. Algae and veges cant grow in toxic water.

This Nairobi river issue is too much. We must be having too much toxins in our bodies.

I'm reading how vegetable farmers those sides of 14 falls use that water. Your sukuma, managu etc could be from those sides.

Yet, especially around July-September, if they serve their cattle with that water, the cows fall ill and die.

Tomatoes, water melons, mangoes etc are also irrigated with the water.

So what happens to the water downstream from hiyo 14 falls? I imagine the local communities use the water for domestic use all the way as the river journeys to the coast mpaka hapo malindi. The wildlife in the tsavo also depends on the river.

I think the water quality should be measured from ruai to malindi ie along the whole 600km river length, with sampling done after every 10km.

So what were the results of their tests?