A judge has directed the county government and the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company to clean Kirichwa River within six months.
The order released to the press yesterday followed a request from Castle Rock Apartments along Galana Road to have the river cleared residents stopped from dumping garbage in it.
Kirichwa is a tributary of the Nairobi River. Castle Rock called it an open sewer and blamed failure by government agencies to monitor waste disposal and provide sewerage services.
On Wednesday last week, Justice Antonina Bor said the government must protect the environment and afford everyone clean and healthy surroundings as guaranteed by the Constitution.
NWSC must place sewer lines properly to ensure no effluent is released. A compliance report is required and must be presented to the court.
“The court agrees the respondents have a duty to eliminate all pollution from Kirichwa River,” Bor said.
“The respondents are directed to ensure sewer lines are properly laid out and put in place on the land adjoining the river and that no raw sewage and waste is released into Kirichwa River.”
Castle Rock sought to have the county and the firm to survey the river from its source to its drainage to “detect, arrest and eliminate all sources of pollution within 30 days.”
It called for a clean-up to restore a reasonably clean flow. The management said the river also had a foul smell that violated their right to a clean environment.
In response, Nairobi Water director Mario Kainga said they had been “diligently” putting in place measures to control pollution. He said casual labourers had been cleaning the river from February 2016 — covering 500 metres daily.
The sewerage company blamed residents for building on sewer lines along the river, making maintenance impossible.
The court visited the site, the judge confirmed the foul smell and said several pipes were draining sewage into the river.
“There is no river access. The electric fence next to Castle Rock Apartments had to be disabled,” Bor said.
She said the apartments are “very close to the river” and they had to seek permission to see the river from an apartment upstream.
“There were manholes near the river intended for drainage and flow of the waste, but they could not be accessed due to the walling of the properties next to the river,” the judge said.