The Sh100m Chekalini Water Project in Lugari, Kakamega, will become operational by December.
Once operational, the project will serve some 22,000 people in Chekalini ward and parts of Lugari ward.
Governor Wycliffe Oparanya on Sunday said the project has modern machines imported from Australia and a transformer for the supply of electricity to the plant.
“Water is drawn from the dam to the plant, which is automatically purified by machines before being supplied to residents. We will not use workers to purify water as the exercise will be done by machines," he said.
"The machines we have installed are the best. The project will resolve the perennial water shortage problem residents have been experiencing once operationalised it at the end of this year."
The governor directed that residents living around the water project be connected to electricity from the transformer.
"By the time I come back to commission this project, all the residents living around it should have been connected to electricity," he said.
The project is part of Oparanya’s reelection campaign pledge to ensure that all households in the county have access to piped water by 2022.
While launching the Sh70 million Misango Hills Water Project in Khwisero subcounty in August 2019, Oparanya announced that his government would spend Sh1 billion to provide water services in the county in two years.
The project, which targets 50,000 people, is a joint venture by the county government and the Kenya Red Cross.
Oparanya said similar projects will be initiated in other subcounties to boost supply of clean piped water and ensure the majority of residents have access to water.
A week ago, Oparanya opposed a proposal by the Kakamega County Water and Sanitation Company (Kacwasco) to review water tariffs upwards.
He asked the company to explore alternative avenues for funding its operations, including donors.
Oparanya said he has stepped up public participation meetings with residents at the subcounty level to share his development agenda with them.
He said this was to enable them to be part of the decision-making in development programmes initiated by the county, as required by the law.
He said he has held such forums in Butere and Likuyani subcounties.
