Nairobi CBD to go without water for 24 hours

The Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) on Wednesday announced that it would cut water supply on Uhuru Highway due to ongoing work on the expressway.

The outage will last from 6am on Thursday, April 14, to 6am on Friday, April 15.

NCWSC said the shutdown was to facilitate the interconnection of relocated new and old water pipelines on Uhuru Highway between the Haile Selassie Avenue and University Way junctions to enable the release of the road corridor to the expressway contractor.

The areas to be affected include the whole of the city centre, Ngara, Parklands, Limuru Road, Aga Khan Hospital and the University of Nairobi Parklands law campus.

Others are Mombasa Road, South B, South C, the University of Nairobi main campus, the Coca Cola factory, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, EPZ-Athi River and the whole of Industrial Area.
Also affected are areas on Jogoo Road, including City Stadium, Maringo, Bahati, Buruburu and surrounding estates.

Use available water sparingly

NCWSC Managing Director Nahashon Muguna appealed to affected customers to use available water sparingly as they work to restore supply.

“We strongly advise our esteemed customers to reserve and use water sparingly before and during the period of interruption. Any inconvenience is highly regretted,” Mr Muguna added.

Last year alone, city residents had to endure at least seven water supply interruptions in February, May, June, July, September and December – all due to infrastructure upgrades.

This is the third water disruption this year.

Only about 50 percent of Nairobi residents have direct access to piped water while the rest depend on water from kiosks, vendors, illegal connections or boreholes.

But even for those with direct access to piped water, only 40 per cent receive water 24 hours a day, with the rest for only 11 hours on average.