Mung'aro to address water problem within two years

Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro has called on the national government to fast track the completion of the Mzima 2 water project.

Mung’aro said the pipelines traverses the county and will immensely address the water problem in the county

Speaking in Mitangani location, Bamba after inspecting water projects in the region, the Governor said under the project, the county will pick the line from Silaloni then Gede and eventually to Bamba town .

The line is expected to end the perennial water shortage that has characterised the region for long.

“I started to push for the Mzima 2 Water Project from the former President, Uhuru Kenyatta and now I am pushing the current regime to implement it.

We want to tap the line from Silaloni -Gede-Bamba pipeline and with a big pipe of 22 inches, the targeted areas will get enough water hence end the menace,” he said.

Mung’aro said his government plans to settle the water problem in the county within two years.

“My main focus is water and I want the Members of County Assembly (MCAs) to assist me in passing consecutive budgets that will majorly focus on water solutions, he said.

The Governor who visited the region in his continued tour of ‘County Mashinani’ program said that the county will furthermore construct water pans and open up more water kiosks along the Bamba-Gede-Shirango waterline project.

“God willing, I want to have fully addressed water challenge to its end in the next five years. I know there has been some challenges in the Bamba-Gede-Shirango water project because of water rationing. We have persistently been rationing the water between Mombasa and Kilifi. To address this problem, we want to set up more storage tanks so that once water is pumped to Bamba and it’s environs, it is stored and piped during the rationing period, ” he said.

The governor added that schools will be fitted with water tanks to harvest rain water especially in Kaloleni, Ganze, Rabai, Magarini and some parts of Kilifi South which is receiving little rain per year.

Assembly speaker Teddy Mwambire called for some investigation on what he termed as a change of plan on the Bamba -Gede-Shirango water project since the initial plan had schools and health facilities within the pipeline were to be connected to water.

Also Read: Children’s coordinator calls for closure of Paul Mackenzie’s church

” I want the MCAs to help the governor in identifying whether there were fishy deals about this project. Because in the initial plan from the implementors that is Water Fund Trust, all schools and dispensaries were to be connected to water. Unfortunately we have the Midoina dispensary and the Midoina Secondary school who have no water. What could have happened,”Mr Mwambire said.

Bamba MCA Said Mohamed lamented that the water problem had been caused partly by lazy officers who are not performing their duties properly and urged the governor to crack the whip on such officers.

He said that it was unfortunate that water flows to the region only if senior leaders are coming to the region.

“Governor, we have not had water for the past two weeks. But because of your visit today, we have at long last received water. I once enquired from your officers who told us that it is because of water rationing. It is not true. We would like to have water all the time and not these excuses,” he said.

Mwambir also called for the engineers working on the Shirango water line to increase the kiosks since they are far apart and inconveniences the residents.

“There is not a single water kiosk between Midoina and Jira which is more than 15 kilometres away. Kindly let’s the engineers re design the project to make it viable to the community,” he said.

Sokoke MCA Thaura Mweni also called for the construction of many water pans and also address the rationing of water to the residents of Ganze.

“In this time and age, there are water officers who think they can hoodwink leaders by pumping water when leaders are around. Can this tendency stop because I know water is flowing to this region today because the Governor is around. Can we change and give water to our people on daily basis,” said Mr Mweni.

He also called for the construction of more water pans as a redeemer to the problem.