The Nzoia Water Services Company has installed a new pump in Matisi, Webuye West, to improve supply to residents.
Board chairman Furaha Lusweti said the pump will ease water shortage. He addressed the press at the company headquarters in Webuye town on Monday.
Lusweti said the Matisi pumping station has been breaking down frequently. “Our Bungoma customers have been complaining but after the new pump was installed, there is regular water supply,” he said.
In April, there was an acute water shortage in Bungoma town, which the firm blamed on a mechanical fault at its pumping plant.
An official said one of their pumps at Matisi had failed. The official said the remaining pump was smaller and could not serve the whole town.
On Monday Lusweti said the firm has been losing millions of shillings to errant staff who collude with customers to set up illegal connections.
He said the firm discovered a number of meters were not on record. Lusweti said some staff members take money from customers but do not remit it to the company.
He said the firm is auditing all meters to know how many are not recorded in the system.
He said revenue lost must be recovered to enable the firm provide services effectively.
The board chairman also said the firm has many incompetent and unqualified staff and an audit is being conducted to weed them out.
Lusweti said the firm workers’ union has not yet signed a recognition agreement with the management.
He said the union cannot, therefore, purport to speak on behalf of the company’s workers. “This group is not recognised by law and I hear they have given a strike, which is illegal,” he said
Lusweti said the recognised union that which defends the workers’ rights is the Kenya National Union of Water Sewerage Employees. He said thw union has signed a recognition agreement with the firm’s management.
He urged workers not to associate themselves with an organisation that has not been recognised by the company.