- Garbage collection has been a headache for officials, all of which boils down to poor planning.
- We have several plans. However, there is no culture of implementation. Plans are as good as their implementation, says planner.
Image: PATRICK VIDIJA
The coronavirus outbreak has exposed the upside-down priorities of the country, and Nairobi especially, an expert has said.
The city lacks a mass rapid transit system, clean drinking water and proper housing. Garbage collection has been a headache for officials, all of which boils down to poor planning, Town Planner Lawrence Esho said.
“The coronavirus caught the city flat-footed. How can you tell people to stay at home yet they do not have portable water for instance?” Esho said on the phone.
Esho said technocrats have generated volumes of studies on how the city can be transformed. “We have several plans. However, there is no culture of implementation. Plans are as good as their implementation,” he said.
The town planner said the city needs a think tank that will implement some of the plans that have been generated.
Esho said many mega water projects were rolled out during Mwai Kibaki’s tenure.
Most are however yet to be completed while others ended up as corruption scandals.
Esho said the availability of water is critical for the survival of humans as well as their health.
Experts are advising washing hands with soap and clean running water for 20 seconds as the major way of stopping the spread of coronavirus.
This is, however, a tall order for a city where clean water is rationed.
Nairobi, whose population is 4,397,073, gets most of its water from Ndakaini Dam in Murang'a county.
Dam manager Job Kihamba last week said the water infrastructure needs to be upgraded every 10 years as the population keeps growing.
“There is a need to make projections based on population growth,” he said.
Kihamba said the dam has enough water to serve Nairobi until June. He said the water is overflowing and going to waste for lack of capacity to pump more to the city.
The dam can store 70 million cubic metres at full capacity. It is 2,041 metres above sea level and is 65 metres deep.
Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company acting director Nahason Muguna has said water will be distributed fairly during this crisis period.
He said the firm was pumping 526,600 cubic metres per day from Ndakaini.
This is against a demand of 800,000 cubic metres per day, leaving a shortfall of 273,400 cubic metres.
Esho pointed out that many residents are crammed in the slums and the virus would spread rapidly if it ends up there.
He said the state has invested massive resources in the development of infrastructure such as roads, but these only serve the middle and upper classes who own cars.
“Majority of city dwellers walk to work due to unreliable transport system,” Esho said.
To save its face the government has been trying to put in place the much-awaited Nairobi Bus Rapid Transport. In November last year, the government floated BRT tender.
The Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (Namata) said the government intends to upgrade the Thika superhighway to accommodate the project.
“The improvement will be undertaken as a design and build contract with a construction period of 18 months,” the tender notice said.
The project will be carried out in two phases under one contract.
The first section will be between Clayworks and the Nairobi CBD while the second phase will start from Clayworks to Ruiru.
Namata said it expected the successful bidder to sign a fixed contract.
“The bidders are therefore expected to have experience and capability in both design and construction of BRT facilities and are encouraged to associate as construction firms and consultancy firms to enhance their capabilities in this area.”
The authority held a mandatory pre-bid meeting on December 10 last year.
Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya