Construction of the controversial Sh6.8 billion Northern Water Collector Tunnel project in Murang’a county is 20 per cent complete, implementers have said.
Athi Water Services Board chief executive Malakwen Milgo told the Star on Wednesday that area leaders and residents are happy with the project. “Work is going on and it is to be completed by December 2018,” he said in an interview in his office.
The project has created acrimony involving the state, county, local leaders and residents.
In October Cord leader Raila Odinga in October accused the government of being “secretive” about the project and said it would “turn counties into deserts”. He called it a “tunnel of death”.
Raila said the project would lead to the drying up of rivers in Murang’a
county and elsewhere. “It will be collecting water from the rivers at their source in the Aberdares and diverting the water to Thika’s Ndakaini Dam for use in Nairobi,” he said.
Milgo said the project will improve water supply in Nairobi by 140,000 cubic meters per day. There is a water shortage in Nairobi.
The Nairobi City Water and Sewage Company, started rationing this month because the water levels at the Ndakaini Dam are low.
The Ndakaini Dam can store
70 milliom cubic metres.
It produces 430,000 cubic metres daily, 84 per cent of Nairobi’s supply.
But due the ongoing dry spell, the dam on Monday was 40 per cent full, translating to just 33 million cubic metres ( 33 billion litres) of water.
Nairobi gets 580,000 cubic metres of water daily, against a demand of 750,000 cubic metres, leaving a deficit of about 200,000 cubic metres.
In October last year, area leaders asked why Murang’a supplies 75 per cent of the water consumed in Nairobi, yet its residents do not benefit.
Milgo said some residents are already enjoying water as a result of the project.
He said completed work includes the
Kahuti Water Treatment Plant, which supplies 4,000 cubic metres a day,
and Gatanga water project supplying 3,000 cubic metres a day,.
“We have completed 140km pipeline out of a total of 252km,”he said.
The project involves construction of 11.8km raw water transfer tunnel along eastern fringes of the Aberdare Conservation Area, to divert defined flows from Maragua, Gikigie and Irati rivers into Ndakaini Dam.