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Nairobi residents urged to use water sparingly when rationing starts

Rationing will begin in January until mid April/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 26 – The Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) is urging residents in the capital city to use water sparingly from January next year due to the planned rationing as a result of reduced supply.

Speaking to reporters in his office on Monday, Managing Director Philip Gichuki stated that the capacity at the Ndakaini dam is at 47 percent, far below the required levels.

“At the moment, the Ndakaini dam is at 47 percent full and this is far below what we always expect at this time… it is supposed to be spilling. Therefore, we need to have measures that will ensure that we sustain the water supply to the city,” he said.

He explained that a rationing program has been put in place that will seek to ensure fair supply to all residents of Nairobi.

“This will mean that we ration the amount of water that is within the reservoir in such a way that it gets us up to about mid-April and for that purpose, we need to reduce the water production,” he stated.

He pointed out that the weather forecast by the Meteorological Department has been accurate in so far as the rainfall pattern is concerned.

“At the moment as you have noted and as was announced by the Met department in September this year, the rains have been depressed and this has necessitated that we ration the supply of water across the county,” he said.

“Generally what we are going to do is to reduce the number of days that the people have been receiving water. Those who have been receiving three days and above, we will have to reduce by one day. Those who have been receiving below three days, the supply will remain the same,” he said.

He however indicated that it would not deprive Kenyans from use of the basic commodity.

“So it is not that it is so huge. It is something that we can be able to cope with especially if we get the support of Nairobi residents. More important is that we should not allow any water wastage anywhere including leakages,” he said.

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He also discouraged the use of tap water for washing cars and other non-essential activities and urged all to report any leakages observed in water pipes.

“We need to reduce the water production by about 16 percent so that we are able to ration the amount of water that is in the storage so that it can get us all the way up to mid-April when we expect the long rains to set on,” he stated. “The public now needs to be warned to start using water sparingly and avoid non-essential use of the commodity.”

According to him, supply to the capital city will be reduced from 550,000 cubic meters a day to 462,000 cubic meters.

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