
Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir and lands executive Mohamed “Amadoh” Hussein at Sapphire Hotel on Saturday / BRIAN OTIENO
Mombasa cannot account for the disposal of 95 per cent of its liquid waste, Governor Abdulswamad Nassir has said.
He said most exhausters dump effluent in the ocean or in the county’s stormwater drainage pipes.
“This is the same ocean I swam in when I was young and would like my grandchildren to swim in and see fish. Wouldn’t you want that too?” Nassir posed.
He said the proliferation of high-rise buildings has made the situation worse because most do not have biodigesters as required.
Apart from residential areas, the effluent comes from hotels and other establishments.
“The question is, where does all the waste go to? Because it cannot be accounted for,” Nassir said.
He spoke on Saturday when he met the built environment stakeholders at the Sapphire Hotel.
The governor said Mombasa residents are used to calling in exhausters whenever their septic tanks are full, but they never care where all that waste is taken to.
He said the county will now collect sewage from the developers’ buildings.
The governor gave developers who have connected their sewer lines to the county’s stormwater drainage system a grace period to rectify the mess. He did now specify how long.
“If you don’t do the right thing within a specified period, we will come in, dig the soak pit even if it means you will lose a flat. Because we cannot continue like this forever,” Nassir said.
He said the county will then instal biodigesters for the developer but surcharge them.
Nassir said the county will then engage the exhauster services companies to collect liquid waste from the soak pits and pay them so residents will not have to pay the exhausters.
“This way, we will know where they take the waste, because it has become a problem,” the governor said.
Nassir said the Kizingo Sewer Treatment plant has been dead for 33 years, while the Kipevu one has been dead for 13 years, and reviving them would cost billions of shillings.
The Kipevu one was supposed to be financed by the World Bank and the National Treasury but there have been delays, with now plans likely to include the private sector.
The county, Nassir said, is mulling over putting up a faecal treatment plant to treat the waste that comes out of the biodigesters.
“We need to work together on this,” he said.
Nassir said Nyali and Tudor areas were built with the hope that developers would instal biodigesters in their buildings.
Instead, most developers opt to ignore the biodigester requirement and connect the sewer to the county’s stormwater drainage system.
“We cannot continue like this. We are sinking,” Nassir said.
On solid waste management, which has become a menace to residents, the governor announced elaborate plans to deal with it using 41 youth groups.
On a trial basis, the county will engage the 41 youth groups to collect waste twice a week from houses and the county will pay them.
The groups will be given specific areas of operation, supervised by residents.
The county will buy tuk-tuks and uniform for garbage collection for the groups, and two new trucks for the county.
Nassir said the garbage collectors will also be given health cover by the county.
“We will do financial literacy tests for them too. The first trial will be for certain areas only because we cannot go full force into the matter because if there is going to be teething problems there will be issues,” the county chief said.
The youth groups will collect waste from the residential areas twice a week without charging residents because the county will be paying for the services.
The governor said waste collection companies tried to dissuade him from employing youth to collect waste.
However, Nassir said the companies have been given commercial areas to collect waste and are at liberty to apply any method allowed.
He said the companies do not collect the waste from the houses, especially in informal areas.
“These garbage did not carry themselves to the roadsides. Someone must have picked them from the houses. When we give young people this work, it will be an employment opportunity for them,” Nassir said.