By Kamau Njoroge
Schools in Thika East, Kiambu County are facing an acute water shortage putting learners’ hygiene and health at peril.
Residents and leaders say that the issue has been exacerbated by the hot and dry weather that the country is experiencing that has left rivers in the region including Chania and Ndarugu dry.
Led by Gatuanyaga MCA Jackson Kung’u alias Jack Ma, the locals revealed that the worst hit schools include Munyu Girls Secondary school which has been forced to buy the essential commodity at costlier prices.
“You can imagine a girls’ school going for days without water. Their hygiene and health is at jeopardy. The situation here is in dire state,” Kung’u said.
The MCA spoke when he led his constituents in unblocking Ndarugu River upstream in Juja area where private firms and other Juja residents had diverted the river obstructing its normal flow downstream.
“The schools in this area depend on Ndarugu River for consumption water but some people and private investors have diverted the river upstream and it is hurting us and our children. This is one of the deliberate measures we are taking to ensure that our schools at least get water,” the MCA said.
The locals from Komo, Githima, Magana, Gatuanyaga and Munyu villages in Thika East on Friday travelled for over 20 kilometers to Juja Farm and Nyacaba areas in Juja sub-county to unblock sections of the river which had been blocked by farmers and residents in a bid to restore the normal river flow downstream.
They solely depend on the river for domestic use water but blocking of the river has seen them go for close to a month without the essential commodity.
A bloody clash almost occurred at Nyacaba area when the over 300 residents found a concrete barrier erected across the river by the local community for a community water project known as Kinyathena water project.
The infuriated Thika East residents descended on the barrier with sledge hammers and crowbars with intent to bring it down but their efforts were thwarted by Nyacaba residents who stood their ground and dared the ‘visitors’ to destroy the barrier.
“This is inhumane. How can they construct a concrete barrier across the river denying us living downstream an opportunity to get water? We are really suffering while others here have water in plenty,” said Dominic Kimani, one of the Thika East residents.
The clash was however averted by the MCA and his Witeithie ward counterpart Mwibiri Ngugi and police officers from Witeithie Police Station who intervened and quelled the duel.
The two leaders and other local community leaders agreed that the community water project will be pumping water during the night and let the water flow downstream during the day.
They also destroyed barriers and moved huge boulders, quarry waste and hundreds of sacks filled with soil to restore normal river flow downstream.
