Nairobians will still experience water rationing, with some areas getting low water pressure, despite the ongoing heavy rains, the Nairobi City Water & Sewerage Company said in a statement on May 5th.
- •According to the company, the city’s water infrastructure is limited to a production capacity of 525.6million litres per day against a daily demand of 900 million litres.
- •Nairobi has been struggling with water supply for years as population growth has far outstripped production capacity.
- •A similar statement issued by the utility firm in November 2023 estimated the city’s daily water demand at 870 million litres per day, which suggests demand has grown by at least 30 million litres per day in the six months since.
“Our water supply to the city is therefore limited to the installed production capacity,” the company said in both statements, “This means that even when we have our dams overflowing, the water supply will remain constant.”
The capital currently receives water from four sources: Kikuyu Springs, Ruiru, Sasumua and Thika Dams.
There are several ongoing projects to boost production. The biggest is the Northern Collector Tunnel (NCT) whose construction begun in February 2015. The NCT is aimed at collecting flood water from three rivers in Murang’a to alleviate water shortages in the capital and 12 satellite towns. The project’s Phase I, which is projected to add 140 million litres per day, was supposed to be commissioned in March 2024 while Phase II is scheduled to be complete in 2026.
Other water projects include the Karemenu Dam Water Project (23 million litres per day) which was scheduled to be complete by the end of 2023, and the Maragua IV Dam (130mn litres per day) which is scheduled for completion in 2028. Delays in the projects mean that the city’s water supply has remained largely unchanged for years, despite the city’s continued growth and expansion.
Infrastructure Damage
In addition to design limitations, flooding and other effects of heavy rains have also destroyed some of the city’s water infrastructure. The utility firm warned that at last 12 areas in the city will receive water supply with low pressure. This is in addition to unconfirmed reports of contaminated water supply in some parts of the city, as the heavy rains push the current systems, including sewer lines, to their limits.
In May 2020, a landslide damaged a section of the Sasumua pipeline, cutting the city’s daily water supply by 12%. The disruption was only resolved by building a new pipeline on a different longer route to avoid perennial damages to the supply lines.
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