A war is simmering between Murang’a Water and Sanitation Company and Murang’a High School over a sewer.
Both institutions have laid claim to the sewer line that passes through the school.
Murang’a Water and Sanitation Company (Muwasco) says it built the line in 2015 in partnership with the county government for Sh850,000.
Managing director Daniel Ng’ang’a accused the school of maliciously damaging a 600m-long pipe that connected about 60 homes to a sewerage system.
“Before the school constructed a bio-digester, it used our sewer line but requested a disconnection. Its contractor, however, destroyed the pipe saying it is not right for the sewer to pass through the school,” he said.
Ng’ang’a said should the line be reconstructed, it would cost the company about Sh1.2 million. He, therefore, appealed to Muwasco, the school and the county government to cooperate and restore the line.
He said the free-flowing waste is a health hazard and poses risks to residents.
The school, on the other hand, says the county government helped it establish the line at a cost of Sh700,000. It adds that it has been seeking Muwasco’s services in unclogging its sewer but the firm has now staked a claim to its ownership.
Parents Association chairman Amos Njoroge said the school still owes Muwasco Sh2 million, arrears from the costs incurred when the firm serviced the sewer. He added that Muwasco had prohibitive charges. Because of this, the school sought alternative ways of managing its waste and eventually installed a biodigester with the help of the Tana Water Services Board.
Njoroge said that after students were sent home following the outbreak of the coronavirus in March, Muwasco illegally connected a sewer pipe to a manhole inside the school compound, linking it to waste from surrounding homes.
The waste overflowed in the bio-digester and the soap in the waste disrupted the biogas production process.
“We realised that the soap in the foreign waste would eventually kill our biodigester and blocked the pipe,” Njoroge said, adding that soapy waste from the school uses a separate sewer that cost them Sh2 million to establish.
But the blockage caused the waste to overflow onto a nearby farm, making life unbearable for residents.
Beth Wangari said the strong odour from the waste penetrates their homes and makes it hard for them to stay indoors.
The residents have been forced to dig trenches to divert the waste from their houses.
Rose Wangari, another resident, wants the dispute between the two institutions solved as soon as possible, cautioning that children are more vulnerable and could fall sick after playing in the open trenches.
But Njoroge said the school met stakeholders on August 11 in a forum organised by county commissioner Mohamed Barre and each party was directed to handle its own waste.
He maintained that the school will not allow communal waste to run through it and asked Muwasco to find an alternative sewer line.
