As Kenyan as we are, we are sure to do the one thing we do best during this blessed season: complain. Just two months ago, we complained about the dryness of the land. The lack of production. The scarcity of water. As the tides turn and we receive the abundance of water from the heavens, our complaints don't falter, they continue with a changed topic: floods.
Did you know that most islands have no running water? They rely on rainfall to fill their storage tanks to last them the year. Yet here we are, a developed and capable nation that gets soaked every rainy season. Rain means traffic, fare hikes, floods… all manner of complaints.
Don't we have scientists, meteorologists and civil engineers in the country? In a land that receives a mere three to four months of rain, we can barely call ourselves an agricultural nation, yet we have no proper resources for collecting and storing water during the rain season.
We barely have 20 dams and reservoirs in the country. To my knowledge, there are none near the coastal region. Yes, I understand topography and I know that it is impossible to build a dam at zero degrees above sea level.
Surely there are other methods to be employed to ensure the rain water collected around the coastal region can go towards benefitting the people during the dry season?
At the very least, why can't we have functioning drainage systems that take the water to the sea? Why must the entire region flood with heavy rains?
In a few months, new complaints will arise: “There wasn't enough rain. There will not be enough harvest.”
It's the same old story retold over and over again since the times of our founding fathers. No one does anything about it. We just talk about it and move on.
In Mombasa, cars, tuktuks and matatus drive through waist-deep water. I can't even imagine the kind of mechanical damages vehicle owners will be facing this season. The floods and bad road conditions have been multiplied as the road expansion initiative on the Mombasa-Malindi highway continues. Multiple areas are flooded, temporary roads have been washed away and citizens are left wondering if it is worth the effort to drive their cars in such conditions.
For a small coastal town that is easily flooded, we have a unique way of undermining drainage during construction. When people build in the congested neighbourhoods, they prioritise septic tanks and channel grey water to make its way down the road. When the council was hurriedly building Cabro roads in these neighbourhoods, they did not account for the drainage.
The irony is that every rain season, the Cabro roads turn into smooth streams of water, forcing pedestrians to use the muddy paths on the side of the road. With the construction of the Mombasa-Malindi highway, I cannot help but wonder what awaits us next season, when the road is completed.
Will the entire highway turn into a river because of the lack of foresight? If the contractors did not prioritise drainage works during this rainy season to ensure maximum efficiency, who is to say that they prioritised drainage systems on the highway?
