More than a million residents of Nairobi have gone without water since Sunday after floods destroyed a dam in the centre of the country and parts of the capital were expected to be without water for days, said Nairobi City Council Water General Manager Lawrence Musyoka.
”Flood waters brought down a wall on the Sasumua Dam after heavy rains in the Aberdare region, and parts of the city will not have water for about 10 days,” Musyoka said on Monday.
Sasumua Dam, the second largest in the country, was built 50 years ago and supplies two-thirds of the water to the Kabete reservoir on Nairobi’s western suburbs, from where it is distributed to the city.
The dam pumps 60-million litres of water every day and is normally capable of sustaining sections of the city for at least three months, Musyoka said.
The water shortage in the capital comes at a time when seasonal rains continue to pound the country, wreaking havoc as floods sweep away entire villages, causing untold misery to people around the country.
Police representative Jesse Mituki said last weekend that at least 28 people, including a member of parliament, had drowned in floods since the rains resumed with a vengeance two weeks ago.
”Roughly over 15 000 people have been displaced, schools in low-lying areas have been submerged, several roads have been cut off, most of them in western Kenya,” said Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) representative Antony Mwangi on Monday.
”Many schools will not reopen for the second term on Monday, while diseases like malaria and cholera threaten thousands of people in the flood-hit areas,” Mwangi added. – Sapa-AFP