Polluters of the Nairobi River will be dealt with ruthlessly, the Nairobi county government has said.
Environment county executive Vesca Kangogo also said a cleanup exercise on the river's upstream was on course.
“Because of the natural flow of the river, it is better to designate points at the lower part of the stream to remove waste,” Kangogo tod the Star.
Kangogo said officials from the county government are opening the lower stream.
She said once waste has been removed from the lower stream, the river will flow easily.
Kangogo said they realised at the onset of the clean up that most waste has been thrown to the river on the lower side.
"The greatest pollutant upstream is actually raw effluent. That means sewers and industrial discharge," she said.
Kangogo said a lot of dumping and disposal of solid wastes inside the river is at the lower side where there are high population and slums.
"If you go to the other sides like Kangemi, Kirichwa River, Nairobi West, you may not see the accumulation of waste," she said.
Kangogo said there was less dumping on the upmarket.
She said matters are worse as from Kibira to Mukuru Kwa Reuben, Kwa Njenga all the way to Mathare.
"The lower side towards Dandora has massive waste," she said.
The CEC said massive dumping in Korokocho and Dandora has seen officials put more efforts there.
Kangogo said they have now embarked on surveillance on factories and institutions discharging raw sewerage.
"On compliance, 302 people have been arrested in 60 days and 1,500 facilities have been inspected on plastics and discharge," she said.
She said the interventions they are having arise from their mandate as a county government and specifically on environmental management.
Kangogo said they are also supporting entities like Nema.
Last month, Environment CS Keriako Tobiko raised concerns after a parliamentary environment committee reduced to zero the funding for environmental projects.
The ministry had requested the National Treasury to provide Sh284 million for urban rivers restoration but was declined.
The ministry sought Sh110 million for Nairobi River restoration, Sh140 million for Imarisha Naivasha and Sh70 million for Suswa/Lake Magadi.
The Nairobi county assembly, in a supplementary budget last December, allocated the environment sector Sh2.76 billion.
Part of the money was paid to casual labourers who have been cleaning Nairobi River.
Kangogo said the national government has not been able to communicate to them on the allocation towards Nairobi River clean up.
However, county government has solely been spending its resources on cleaning the river, especially for the last one year.
"We have been having meetings with the ministry of environment. They have given us 200,000 seedlings to plant along the river," she said.
Kangogo said casuals as well as enforcement and planning team were being used to clean up both the river and riparian areas.
The CEC said owners of apartments were being given notices for causing massive pollution.
Kangogo said apartments have mushroomed in areas such as Lavington and other upmarket.
They, however, do not have how to contain their waste.
She said statistics they have as a county government indicated that they have 34 per cent sewer coverage.
The 34 per cent is the inbuilt facilities such as toilets, septic tanks and trunk sewer lines.
(edited by O. Owino)
