By Collins Omulo and Brian Okinda
Nairobi County residents will, for a while longer, continue to endure water rationing despite the heavy rains.
The city started rationing water in January 2017, the most affected areas including Lang’ata, Umoja, Githurai and Zimmerman.
Not much is expected to change soon.
Treatment
Water executive Vesca Kangogo said the rationing will likely continue until mid-2020.
Ms Kangogo explained, however, that the measure is not the result of lack of water; she said water treatment systems can only process 526,000 cubic meters daily against a demand of 790,000.
It is estimated that demand increases by 20,000 cubic meters annually.
“The [system] requires that we treat water before releasing it. There will always be a deficit since we cannot release water directly from the source to consumers,” she said on Wednesday, adding the county cannot do much until the installed production capacity is expanded.
Maintenance
Ms Kangogo added that some areas lack water due to interruptions for routine maintenance and infrastructure improvement by the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company.
“We can also have interruptions arising from damages, leakages and sewer-bursts, which cause water from drainages to flow into conveyor pipes. To avoid these, we occasionally shut supply for repairs in order to prevent contamination,” she said.
