Cleaning up Nairobi River will take time, money and miracle

It will take a long time before city residents go fishing or swimming in Nairobi River despite a proposed Sh12 billion clean-up programme that started nine years ago.

Once completed, the programme lead to the overhaul of the city’s sewerage system and see over 125,000 slum dwellers moved from sites near the river.

Despite the multi-billion shilling clean-up drive, now in its final year, the Nairobi River continue to choke with garbage, industrial waste, agro and petro-chemicals and heavy metals among other pollutants which have led to the extinction of aquatic life in the river and made it into an eyesore.

The pollution has led to water-borne diseases and scarcity of safe water for city residents who are also exposed to toxic substances and heavy metal poisoning.

For the clean-up drive to be successful, the Government is expected to contribute about Sh4 billion to the project. Another Sh5 billion will be from the African Development Bank and Sh3 billion from donors.

However, the Government is experiencing a Sh127 billion Budget deficit this financial year while many donor countries are in recession due to the global financial crisis. This could jeopardise the chances of success for the programme.

The plan could further be scuttled by a population explosion expected to reach its peak in the next ten years, once as half of the population, now in their teens, enter the reproductive age.

According to the State of Kenya Population 2008 report released last month, the number of people in Kenya will almost have doubled to about 65 million in 20 years.

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