-Filth towns let in dirty water downstream into the main water sources
-Residents face risk of contracting water-borne diseases like typhoid, dysentery and cholera
Local communities in Baringo have threatened to sue the government for failure to put up sewerage systems in Kabarnet and Eldama-Ravine towns.
Lawrence Bomet, a member of the Lembus Council of Elders from Eldama Ravine said rental houses and lodges were flushing out raw sewage into the locality.
“Decomposing food and human waste are being disposed of openly in the towns. There is filth everywhere," he said on Thursday.
Kabarnet-based civil society crusader Isaiah Biwott said it was time locals moved to court to sue the state for putting people’s health at high risk.
“Sewerage system has been discussed in Baringo since the 1980s but it hasn’t been actualised. It is time legal action is taken” Biwott said.
The towns are also marred with broken and blocked water runways and culverts along the backstreets adjacent to business premises and open-air markets.
“It is so unfortunate that the people of Baringo pay taxes like other Kenyans yet they lack such important public facilities like sewers,” Bomet said.
He said the towns are currently letting out raw sewage into rivers flowing downstream into main water sources like Chemususu and Kirandich dams and Lake Baringo.
Thousands of residents source their drinking water from the lake and the dams.
The situation poses serious health riskw to the residents who might contract water-borne diseases like typhoid and cholera.
Bomet said the two urban centres date back to the colonial era but they still lack dumpsites for solid waste.
Baringo county environment chief officer Richard Ruto said they have allocated a 24-acre plot at Kiboino area along the Kabarnet-Iten road to be used as a dumpsite.
He said the facility hasn’t been put into use to date owing to some unresolved disagreements.
The town currently heaps waste illegally on private land near an SDA church in Kaprogonya estate.
“Construction of the Kabarnet sewerage is an Italian project being handled by the national government but in the meantime, we are committed as a county government to do the little we can to ensure a clean environment,” Ruto said.
Environmentalist Winnie Changwony called on the National Environment Management Authority to take swift action against the perpetrators.
“Nema should also push both the national and the county government to fast track construction of sewerage systems,” Changwony said.
“The lack of sewerage management system exposes local communities to serious public health threats. We echo Lembus Council of Elders for pushing Nema to take necessary action,” Changwony said.
She urged the communities to rise up to hold the relevant authorities accountable so their rights to a clean and healthy environment is upheld.
Nema county director Gilbert Magut however termed environmental hazards a crime. He promised action.
Magut warned those disposing of waste carelessly and encroaching on and developing riparian lands that their days were numbered.
“Once got, they shall be arrested and arraigned,” Magut said.
Kabarnet and Eldama-Ravine towns have populations of more than 100,000 people each, including traders and residents.