Flood beg insight into our failure to plan

Mombasa Governor Abdullswamad Nassir could be going to court to obtain permission to dismantle homes and structures built on waterways and are now causing flooding in most parts of the coastal city.

He has cautioned his planning department to earmark designated water paths under any investments for likely demolition.

When waterways are blocked, either by walls or structures, this water will usually devise its own ways to vent out. And this is how it ends up in wrong places, such as residences, causing damage.

A development in swamps, riparian land or rivers’ flood plains is, besides being illegal, a date with disaster. This is the spectre in towns as tenants flee from the barges that are residences.How we lost storm drains to the unscrupulous “private developers” at the expense of sanity and comfort is baffling.

The raging El Nino rains have only exploited an open window to spew its rage over the human error.Do we enact new laws on planning and construction approvals that are better than the ones we have that are only gathering dust on the shelves? Do we blame our planners for their greed and taking bribes to circumvent by-laws and building regulations?

We may not succeed in clearing the developed waterways as most of the developers and planners are enjoined at the hip like Siamese twins but some pressure must be applied on the culprits.

Why not change the statutes to require that such developments be forfeited to the State? Why not make the road to uncensored developments more slippery?

Hopefully, the next long rains and/or El Nino will meet us more focused, a bit smarter and less clumsy. That’s a precedent that we must start setting now.

- Kabaria ole Muturi, Nyeri