• Dr Chumo says most Kenyan towns lack proper sewerage treatment systems.
• The Kenya Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Policy 2016-2030 shows only five per cent of the collected sewage in Kenya is ever treated.
Image: ENOS TECHE
Dr John Chumo is seeking to uncover Kenya’s dirty little secret: Where does the human excreta collected in urban areas go?
The Kenya Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Policy 2016-2030 shows only five per cent of the collected sewage is ever treated.
The rest cannot be accounted for.
Dr Chumo, also known as the environment ombudsman, heads the National Environmental Complaints Committee, a semi-autonomous agency that investigates allegations of environmental degradation.
He says one of the biggest complaints received last year was the dumping of human faecal and solid waste in cities and towns.
“Effluent discharge to rivers and lakes is very high. This is very injurious to the environment,” Chumo says.
He told the Star that most Kenyan towns lack proper sewage treatment systems.
For instance, in Nairobi, only three in 10 residents are connected to the sewer infrastructure.
In Kisumu, only 18 per cent of the city is connected to the municipal sewer. That falls to 15 per cent in Mombasa.
“In Mombasa, Lamu and other towns along the Indian Ocean, most sewage is discarded into the Indian Ocean. For Kisumu some go to Lake Victoria” Dr Chumo said.
“We depend on tourism and if we can’t do anything it means from Lamu to Kwale we’ll lose our heritage. The law gives Kenyans the right to a clean environment.”
The NECC was created in 1999 under the National Environment Management Authority, but there is an amendment in Parliament to make it autonomous.
Faecal waste from most buildings in urban areas is collected in underground septic tanks.
Due to poor sanitation and hygiene, more than half of the population is at risk of diseases and death, with over 75 per cent of the country’s disease burden caused by poor personal hygiene, inadequate sanitation practices and unsafe drinking waterKenya Hygiene Policy
Chumo said when vacuum tankers suck faecal sludge from septic tanks, it should be emptied into the municipal sewers for treatment.
“The complaints we receive show it is poured into rivers, drains or sometimes into the open,” he said.
The office has investigated most of the complaints and recommended action against some culprits.
The Kenya Hygiene Policy shows the existing sewerage systems are also inefficient and most operate at about 16 per cent of design capacity.
They “are often neglected and characterized by overloaded pipes and blockages owing to intermittent water supply. Sewer bursts and non-functional treatment plants that discharge raw sewage into the watercourses are also common,” the policy says.
In 2018, for instance, the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company said only about 35 per cent of the human waste flowing through its pipes reached the treatment plant in Ruai.
Improving the current systems is economically beneficial to the country.
“Due to poor sanitation and hygiene, more than half of the population is at risk of diseases and death, with over 75 per cent of the country’s disease burden caused by poor personal hygiene, inadequate sanitation practices and unsafe drinking water,” the hygiene policy says.
Dr Chumo says they intend to carry out more public interest litigation.
He said the problem of solid waste dumping in towns is also growing.
"Every town has a dumping site and most are not legal or designated," he said.
"Dumping sites are everywhere in the country. This waste is clogging many channels. That's why whenever we have rains there are floods."
Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya
Image: JOSEPH KANGOGO