- County government urged to relief the community the burden of shouldering the high cost of running the project.
- Although an average Sh11,000 is raised from the sale of water daily, the cost of running the pipeline is between Sh 14,000 and Sh15,000 daily.
More than 5,000 residents of Kitui South face imminent water shortage as their only source could soon collapse.
Some beneficiaries of the Klambani-Kyangoto–Mutha water projects told a visiting team of MCAs that the water project is at risk.
The chairman of the water project Kimanzi Kisangali on Monday said frequent pipeline bursts have made the running of the project untenable.
"We spend 120 litres of diesel to pump water. There is no way we can recoup that cost from selling the water," said Kisangali.
The chairman said there was a need for the county government to relieve the community the burden of shouldering the high cost of running the project that was started in 1956 and whose pipes have aged.
He added that although an average Sh11,000 is raised from the sale of water daily, the cost of running the pipeline was between Sh14,000 and Sh15,000 per day.
“We spend such a huge sum of money due to incessant pipeline bursts and the purchase of fuel. We cannot break even unless the Kitui county government comes to our help,” Kisangali told the MCAs' delegation at Kyangoto trading centre.
He said things would be disastrous should a major mechanical breakdown happen to the generator that pumps the water for the Kalambani borehole.
"We are facing a bleak future here. The borehole doesn't yield adequate water for the people and, to make the matter worse, the pipes are too old and burst any time we do the pumping," said the project chairman.
Kitui Assembly deputy majority leader Colleta Ivia and the MCA for Mwingi Central Mary Kanini Philip promised to present the plight of the Kyangoto residents to the county executive for appropriate remedy.
“As MCA we will compile a report on the poor state of this project and the suffering of the people. We will them present it to the county executive so that action can be taken to correct the situation,” Ivia said.
Edited by Henry Makori