Kibera sewage

 A man scavenges for recyclables in a section of Ngong River that passes through Kibera slum, Nairobi on July 14, 2021. 

| Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group

Sewage flows in the open as population overwhelms Nairobi system

Deep inside Africa’s largest slum by size, Kibera informal settlement, a group of children are playing football.

On both sides of their makeshift playground near Katwekera footbridge are two streams.

 But these are not your usual streams. Instead of clear water flowing to the thirsty river downstream, thick sewage roves nonchalantly down to the river choking with tonnes of all sorts of waste.

 The children, oblivious of the health risks they are exposed to, continue to enjoy their kick-about. The ball falls into one of the grey-green rivulets. One of the boys rushes to get the ball, wipes it with his hand and the play continues.

A few metres from the boys, is another group of children younger than five years, moulding soil picked from the banks of the flowing effluent.

 “It seems odd to you because maybe where you come from there are proper sewage systems. But to us, this is what we live with every day,” says Lydia Anyango, a resident. “But again, who do you expect to fix a proper sewer line to these makeshift structures,” she asks.

Many kilometres from Kibera, it’s the same situation in Kawangware. Traders go on with their business as sewage flows menacingly along storm water channels and drainages.

The scenarios in Kibera are replayed in some parts of Kangemi, especially those bordering Kawangware.

 “We are used to such squalid conditions and I don’t think it will change any time soon. Most of these houses are not connected to any sewer lines and so we are forced to release the waste and let it find its course,” says Dominic Wanyama, a Kawangware resident.

“We don’t even know if we are sick because we cannot even afford the money for constant check-ups,” adds Monica Nyongesa.

 However, the sewage mess is not isolated to the three areas in the capital. It is widespread, with Nairobi having only 50 percent sewerage coverage.

Waste management is a growing problem in Nairobi exacerbated with increasing urbanisation, rural-urban migration, rising standards of living, and rapid development associated with population growth.

Kibera sewage

Raw discharge of untreated sewage causing water and air pollution to the residents of Kibera, Nairobi on July 14, 2021. 

Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group

 However, the increased solid waste generation by industrial, domestic, and other activities has not been accompanied by an equivalent growth in the capacity to address the problem.

According to a 2003 report by the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) waste in Nairobi comes from a variety of household, service, and industrial processes, with domestic sources leading at 68 percent, industrial waste at 14 percent and the rest from other sources.

 Interestingly, in places where the sewerage exists, a large proportion of households are not connected due to the costs of maintaining a connection or due to the poor functioning of the system, and in many places (such as medium-sized towns) where residents can afford to pay for the services, they do not exist.

As Nairobi’s population continues to grow, more and more poor urban dwellers have been pushed into informal and low-income settlements, where there is little or no water and sanitation. 

Poor infrastructure and squalid living conditions are prevalent in these communities, and overcrowding has exacerbated the already hazardous health conditions.

It is estimated that by 2050, nearly seven out of every 10 people in the world will live in cities and in Kenya alone, the current urban population of 12 million will more than triple to 40 million.

Kibera sewege

People wash clothes by a stream polluted with sewage in Kibera, Nairobi .

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

 According to the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census report, only 18 percent (792,000) of households in the city have a functional septic tank. About 2.1 percent of residents use uncovered pit latrines. Shockingly, some 4,400 people still defecate in the open.

Athi Water Works Development Agency (AWWDA) Chief Executive Officer Michael Thuita says that all upcoming suburbs in Nairobi, including Ruaka, Ongata Rongai, Kitengela, Mavoko, Ruai, Embakasi Village and areas on the Eastern bypass do not have sewerage.

Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Ltd Managing Director Nahashon Muguna adds that Karen, parts of Kawangware, Kangemi, Riruta, Waithaka, areas past Kayole including Mihango, Utawala, Ruai, Loresho, Kitisuru, Muthaiga and all high-end estates, with the exception of Lavington, are also not covered because of their big land mass.

 “How will you put up a sewage system to cover five acres of land? Areas with huge parcels of land but low population density have little sewerage coverage, if any. They depend on on-site sewer systems,” says Mr Muguna.

 Areas well covered include the city centre, Lavington, Lang’ata, Upper Hill, Industrial Area, areas along Mombasa Road except the Inland Container Depot and the area bordering Kyang’ombe.

 Areas along North Airport Road, the whole of Eastlands up to Njiru area, Buruburu, Kariobangi, Dandora, Ruaraka, old city council houses, Pangani, Ngara, Parklands and Eastleigh are 90 percent covered.

 Partially covered areas are Kasarani, Zimmerman, Kahawa West, Mirema, Satellite and Kibera, which Mr Thuita attributes to change of style of housing, where highrise buildings are replacing single dwellings.

Kibera sewage

 Adults and children wade through a flowing sewer mixed with garbage in Katwekera village Kibera, Nairobi, on  September 9, 2018.

Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group

 For areas that are not covered, but which rely on exhausters to empty their septic tanks, the destination of their waste might not be so clear.

 But even in the covered areas, problems such as non-functional sewerage, accidental breakages or deliberate vandalism of manhole covers, blockages due to deliberate dumping of solid waste or accidental entry of stones and boulders into open manholes and also blockage of sewer lines still reign supreme.

 The Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations (Kara) CEO Henry Ochieng says the lack of proper sewerage has negatively impacted health and sanitation within Nairobi’s neighbourhoods, with the association receiving complaints from various areas because of the lack of proper sewerage.

 Buruburu, Syokimau, and low income areas such as Umoja and Kawangware file most complaints.

The primary complaint, according to Mr Ochieng, is burst sewerage or spillage in estates as the existing capacity cannot take the load being fed into them.

“Landi Mawe have complained of experiencing health challenges due to the spillages,” he points out.

Mr Ochieng explains that most buildings coming up in the capital city are not connected to the mainstream sewer system, with owners having to find alternatives on how to manage their waste water because of lack of investment in sewer infrastructure.

 He avers that there has not been corresponding investment in infrastructure or upgrade or maintenance of the existing sewerage in tandem with growth of population in the city as millions of people move into residential areas in the capital.

 The Master Plan for sewerage expansion in Nairobi was first developed in 1973 and reviewed and updated in 1998.

“A sewer pipe that was supposed to take care of 2,000 is now forced to take care of 10,000 people. The pressure in terms of capacity will not be able to take care of what is being fed into the system and this leads to bursts,” he says.

 Another problem is the failure to comply with existing zoning regulations, and planning, being behind the sewer mess in Nairobi. Places designed for low density population get approvals for high density investments like 24-storey apartments.

 “Obviously, the first thing that will be affected will be services such as sewer and water. The lack of a mainstream sewer system will then force people to find alternatives. We need investment on the infrastructure or upgrade as a matter of urgency,” urges Mr Ochieng.

But Mr Muguna disagrees, saying that approval of building plans should not be tied to development of water and sewerage.

 “We should not stifle development because of being behind in sewerage infrastructure,” he opines.

Kibera

 A man scavenges for recyclables in a section of Ngong River that passes through Kibera slum, Nairobi on July 14, 2021. 

Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group

Nevertheless, Mr Thuita agrees that a lack of integrated urban development has led to the current mess in Nairobi.

 He points out that while giving development approvals, emphasis is not put on where one will be getting water and how they will be treating their waste water before the approvals are done.

 Mr Thuita avers that the sewerage in Nairobi was planned for one million people but as the population increased, there were no expansion plans in response.

“As much as informal settlements are where much of the waste water is coming from because of the population density, there has also been approval of high density buildings across the capital without corresponding investment in sewerage infrastructure,” says Mr Thuita.

 “A 20-storey building is being put up in Ruaka for example, where does the waste water go to? No septic tank can handle that. The result of not having proper waste water management is the pollution that is witnessed in rivers,” he adds.

 Mr Thuita admits there is a gap between sewerage coverage and waste water treatment, where the city generates about 525 million litres a day, out of which only 350 million litres is converted into sewerage material. However, the treatment system is only able to treat less than 200 million litres.

But even then, different reports have revealed that the two sewage treatment plants in the city are operating at very low efficiency, attributed to poor maintenance, high organic loading and influence of industrial discharges.

 Nairobi has two main sewerage treatment plants -- the Kariobangi Treatment Plant and Dandora Estate Sewerage Treatment Works (DSTW), also known as Ruai Sewerage Treatment Plant.

 The Kariobangi plant, built in 1961 and extended in 1963 and occupying about 4,000 acres, is designed to treat 32,000 cubic metres of waste water a day, but handles an average flow of 11,000m³ a day.

 On the other hand, the Dandora plant, with a design capacity of 120,0000m³ a day -- about 80 percent of waste water generated in Nairobi -- handles an average flow of 80,000m³.

The plant was built between 1975 and 1990, when the second phase was finished, as a response to a growing city that was expanding eastwards.

 Worryingly, only 41 percent of the waste in the sewerage reaches the Ruai treatment plant, and only 29 per cent is treated, according to a report by the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC). Moreover, nine percent of waste water and 30 percent of faecal sludge in the system is not delivered for treatment.

 The resultant problems of sewer mess in the city, apart from negative health impact, have extended to the environment, with Nairobi rivers – Mathare, Ngong, Athi and Kiu – the main source of water supply for the city – bearing the heaviest brunt.

 The rivers are heavily polluted from both domestic and industrial waste, which is discharged directly into the rivers without being treated, adversely impacting its ecology.

 Last month, Nema Director General Mamo Boru said an inspection of the Nairobi River Basin from Ondiri Swamp all the way to Thwake identified 142 illegal discharge points, 42 industrial premises and 75 illegal structures along the river, as well as 54 illegal dumpsites.

He revealed that the major pollution challenge in the city is as a result of broken and dysfunctional sewer lines. Nema identified 28 concealed illegal pipes discharging effluent into the river from residential areas.

 Dr David Mwenda, a public health officer with the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), explains that sewage contains harmful substances that may cause diseases or bring undesirable changes in the environment.

 He points out that sewage contains pathogens including bacteria, viruses, protozoa, bio toxins, heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium, and sometimes resistant genes for antibiotics, to which individuals can be exposed through ingestion of contaminated food or water.

 This is in addition to environmental exposure, where playing children can come into contact with the filth, with the pathogens entering their bodies through the skin.

The sewage might also settle in a field and grass grows on the site. Then animals will feed on the grass, ingesting worms from the faecal matter, and when meat from the animals is not properly cooked, hookworms are at the end of the day, transferred to the consumer.

“Water supply pipes might also come into contact with the sewage and when there happens to be a leakage, the sewage seeps into the pipes and gets supplied to the community living around,” says Dr Mwenda.

 The diseases one is likely to suffer from include gastroenteritis – illness triggered by the infection and inflammation of the digestive system; cholera and bacillary dysentery; all caused by bacteria, then there is polio and Hepatitis A and E caused by the viruses, then bio-toxins -- chemicals produced by the bacteria -- can cause food poisoning.

Mathare sewage

A woman jumps over a flowwing sewage at Mathare 4A market on April 26 2019. 

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

 To mitigate the mess facing Kenya’s capital, Mr Muguna explains that the government, through the Ministry of Water and Sanitation and its agency, Athi Water Works, are currently implementing a Sh20 billion project, financed by the French Development Agency and the African Development Bank, aimed at improving sewerage coverage in Nairobi to about 70 percent in the next four years.

 Part of the fund, Sh800 million, he says, has been put into the expansion of Ruai Treatment plant to boost its capacity to manage liquid waste generated in the city.

Once complete, it will increase the plant’s treatment capacity from the current 80 million litres a day to about 200 million litres.

 Works at the plant began in December 2020. The overall project progress is currently at 48 percent, with full completion expected in May 2022.

When this is achieved, an additional 250,000 residents of Nairobi will be connected to the sanitation grid. 

 “We are hoping that in the next one year or so, we will have adequate water in the city, about 90 percent. Then sewer about 70 percent coverage in the next four years,” he avers.

 Another part of the fund has been spent on ablution blocks in slums, such as Kibera, famed for “flying toilets”, making available to residents more hygienic means of waste disposal. The 20 ablution blocks in Kibera are all connected to sewer lines.

 Kenya had set a target of 40 per cent sewerage collection, treatment and disposal in urban centres and 10 per cent in rural areas by 2015, but four years later, it is way below target.

The country has a national sewerage coverage of 16 per cent, where only 32 out of 215 urban centres in 26 counties having a modern sewerage, according to the Water Services Regulatory Board (Wasreb) eleventh Impact Report released in 2019.

 Nairobi still leads with the highest sewerage coverage followed by Kisumu at 49 percent, Laikipia (36 percent), Trans Nzoia (34 percent) and Bungoma (34 percent), while those with the lowest sewerage coverage are Garissa (six percent), Murang’a (five percent), Meru (five percent), Homa Bay (four percent) and Busia (two percent).

 The report revealed that most urban centres in 21 counties depend on non-sewered sanitation such as pit latrines, septic tanks, soak pits and modern container-based toilets, among others.