Meru County Water and Sewerage Services CEO Joseph Mberia has said that Covid-19 has affected its revenue streams.
He said that due to the closure of many hotels and schools, their revenue has gone down by about 30 per cent.
He said although domestic consumption has gone up, it has not been able to cater for the losses incurred.
“If we are not assisted we this might slow down our development agenda as we will concentrate on only water treatment and paying salaries. We have to write many proposals to ensure we get funding externally,” he said.
He said they are also spending a lot of money on personal protective equipment.
“We are also expanding offices to ensure there is social distance, all this we had not planned for but we have to make sure our staff are safe,” he said.
He said although they are facing a hard time they do not plan to cut down staff.
“Our staff are not even enough. We had planned to add staff before Covid-19 but we have put aside that for now,” he said.
Mberia spoke to the Star in an interview at his office in Meru town.
He said the company also suffers losses due to vandalism as about 100 water meters are stolen per month.
"We have started changing the brush meters that are a target," he said.
Mberia said there are also a few cases of water theft in the company.
The company supplies water to Meru town and its environs covering a population of about 105,000 people and makes about Sh15 million per month.
Edited by R.Wamochie
