Nairobi City Water Sewerage Company (NCWSC) owes Athi Water Works Limited Sh7.6 billion, putting Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja on the spot.
This even as Sakaja disclosed that Nairobi residents need 800 million litres of water per day for the 5.6 million residents.
However, Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi claimed that Athi Water Works is owed Sh4billion and not Sh7.6billion as captured in the Auditor General’s report for the year ending June 30, 2020.
“According to our records, NCWSC owes Athi Water Works Sh7.6billion as captured by Auditor’s report. We are not aware of the Sh4billion,” said Sakaja.
Osotsi said that the committee will engage with Athi Water Works Limited to establish the exact amount owed by Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company since there are two varying figures which are Sh3 billion apart.
The Vihiga Senator asked the county government to provide to the committee verified bank statements for Laptrust payments from 2015 to date and also submit a list of the private exhausters engaged by the county.
Best services
“The people of Nairobi deserve to get the best services from Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company, that is why we are asking Governor Johnson Sakaja to ensure that the team assigned to perform various tasks in the company perform their job,” said Osotsi.
While appearing before the Senate Public Investments and Special Funds Committee chaired by Osotsi, Sakaja noted that they had segregated Nairobi into seven regions and zones where meter reading, billing and water disconnections are carried out.
Sakaja charged that Nairobi residents were still being served with connections some done 90 years ago and that illegal connections have contributed to residents not getting sufficient supplies that has increased the debt.
“We have a lot of illegal connections in the city, so far we have arrested 45 people for infiltrating the system which has led to the county having a huge volume of water unaccounted for, we are involving all stakeholders in this exercise to ensure we only have legal connections,” said Sakaja.
The Governor said that the Nairobi City Water utility firm management has carried out various field analyses to be able to determine the Non-Revenue Water levels and their broad components, hence its ability to segregate the Commercial and Technical losses.
Various components
The Nairobi City boss told the committee that the City Water Company has consequently put in place several mitigation measures to substantially reduce the various components of the NRW with the mitigation measures such as addressing commercial losses derived from all types of inaccuracies associated with customer metering as well as customer data handling errors.
“Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company has carried out a study on installed meters and determined that a majority of the meters installed are multi jet meters, which have been found to speedily lose their accuracy before their shelf-life, they were also found to be prone to tampering,” said Sakaja.
According to Sakaja, the water body has already procured some 10,000 meters, which will be installed for new consumers and used for replacement of faulty and aged meters.
In addition, they are currently pursuing a conditional grant for the purchase of a further 40,000 meters, which will be used for the replacement of faulty and aged meters contracted.
The Governor said the management has come up with a payment plan which is being honoured on a monthly basis to liquidate the retirement benefits arrears with the company having gone a step further by increasing its daily pension payments to Laptrust from Sh2.3 million to Sh3 million.
Sakaja told the Godfrey Osotsi-led committee that the actual numbers of licensed private exhausters were 117 and not 762.
He at the same time disclosed that the revenue does not match the high consumption of fuel because the service is also provided to public facilities like schools, public toilets in informal settlements, and county hospitals.
“The discharge point is on the Eastern side (Ruai) of the City hence the distance varies and the rate is subsidised hence revenue is likely to be lower than the cost of fuel consumed with a proposal to raise the fee in the next tariff having been forwarded,” said Sakaja.
The Governor said that most of the boreholes were drilled during the covid-19 pandemic period and were meant to augment the water supply in vulnerable areas, which include informal settlements and are run by community water committees who are in charge of operations with the company paying for electricity and maintenance services.
