Nairobi-Nyandarua feud looms over water supply
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja appears before the Senate Lands, Environment and Natural Resources committee on Tuesday over the brewing water conflict with Nyandarua County.
A tussle is looming between Nairobi and Nyandarua counties over the use of water from Sasumua and Konoike dams.
Nyandarua is pushing for compensation for the use of the crucial resource amid opposition from the city county.
While residents of Nyandarua want Nairobi County to initiate some development projects as a token of appreciation for using their water, Nairobi maintains there is no way one county will implement a project in another.
Sasumua Dam, with a design capacity of 15.9 million cubic metres of water, supplies 12 per cent of water used by Nairobi residents daily (59,000 cubic metres).
Appearing before the Senate Lands and Natural Resources committee, Nyandarua County Assembly wants the Senate to review and ratify the agreements on the exploitation and utilisation of water from the two dams.
They also want the Senate to make a determination on the exploitation of Aberdares forest and other public forest in Nyandarua in tandem with the legal frameworks that ensure equitable sharing of the proceeds.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja, appearing before the committee chaired by Nyandarua Senator John Methu, said it is impossible for his administration to budget for development projects in another county.
Mr Sakaja said county governments have no budgets for projects outside their jurisdictions, adding that there is no legal framework for resource benefit sharing.
“It is impossible to start and fund projects in another county. The allocation we have is not even adequate to undertake our development projects,” said Mr Sakaja.
He added that the petition by the Nyandarua MCAs should wait until a law on resource-sharing is enacted. “We, therefore, recommend that the deliberations on sharing of accrued benefits as envisaged in the petition to the Senate be put in abeyance pending the enactment of applicable laws and regulations with a view to ensure that the same is done within the precincts of the law,” he said.
However, Nyandarua Governor Kiarie Badilisha maintained that the two counties need to look for a way to share the water resource for the benefit of residents.
He said locals who conserve the rivers and the water catchment areas feeding into the two dams should be appreciated through construction of schools and health facilities.
Mr Badilisha observed that although Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company was allocated 800 acres of land for the construction of Sasumua Dam, some 12,800 acres catchment area has been affected by the project.
“We cannot sustain the conservation of the water catchment area alone. There are four rivers that pour its water into the dam,” said Mr Badilisha. “We hope the committee will give favourable report that is beneficial to the residents of the two counties.”
For his part, Nairobi Water managing director Nahashon Muguna said they have been maintaining roads within the catchment areas, outsourcing 90 per cent of the casuals from the area. “We are also carrying out environmental conservation within the catchment area through partnership with the locals,” said Mr Muguna.
