Water, sanitation & energy consultation: Mukuru kwa Reuben segment 1 (Feed the Children, Gatope & Mombasa)
Where? Reuben Centre
When? 16.10.18
What? Water, sanitation and energy consortium consultation (Muungano alliance, Oxfam, Sanergy, Strathmore University, Nairobi Water Company,
Who? 98 resident representatives of SPA Mukuru kwa Reuben segment 1 (villages of Feed the Children, Gatope & Mombasa); representatives from the WSE consortium; Muungano facilitators.
About the community consultations:
This note is from the first of three sets of community consultations by the water, sanitation and energy consortium of the SPA.
This first set of consultation meetings are segment-level dreaming sessions, where residents share their views and aspirations with the consortium, and where the consortium works with the community to identify issues and challenges, community priorities, and ideas for potential solutions – all relating to water, sanitation and energy.
After the first consultation meetings, the consortium will develop a draft sectoral plan for the segment – this draft sectoral plan will be derived from the dreams shared in the first set of consultation meetings and tested against the existing reality of Mukuru.
In later sets of meetings, first at segment level, the consortium will seek residents’ feedback on these draft plans, which will then be revised accordingly. And then all 8 of the SPA consortiums will together share the final integrated development plan, for adoption by Mukuru’s residents.
Brief notes on the discussion:
Attendance
WSE consortium members present
Kellen Muchira Caritas Switzerland Program Manager
Meremiya Hussein Sanergy Programs
Dennis Gichimu Sanergy Programs
Naomy Obunga Sanergy Programs
Aruna SITE Programs
John Owegi Oxfam International Programs
WSE consortium members absent with apology
Ignatius Maranga Strathmore University
Jack Oduor Umande Trust
James Mucheke NCWSC
Patrick Njoroge AMT
Jamlick Mutie KIWASH – USAID
Alex Manyasi Sanergy
Mario Kaingi NCG
Mwaura SDI Kenya
Opening remarks: : The meeting came to order at 10:00am with an opening prayer from Pastor, one of the community members. A brief highlighting was addressed explaining the different consortiums and the importance of sticking to one consortium, and the SPA and its segments.
Discussions – Sanitation
Meremiya: Let us talk about toilet sanitation and cleanliness. Let us engage each other and before giving your opinion, kindly state your name and area of living. What are some of the sanitation challenges?
Petronilla – Mombasa: Fresh Life has been really helpful; however, it is still a burden to us. Every morning my children wake up requesting for money to go to the toilet yet at times I do not have. For commercial use the cost of the Fresh Life toilet is Ksh. 5 per child. Kindly assist the children by lowering the price.
Charles - Mombasa: Why do we have drainage issues considering the main sewer is close by? We need permission to access it.
Njoroge - : Manholes are overflowing with garbage and storm water. They are open. This is the South B sewer. Give us a bigger sewer system.
Tabitha Mwangi – : How did the personal commercial toilets change to be Ksh.5/=
Teresiah - : Fresh Life should lower the prices especially for households with many children. Will there be demolitions for the sewer line? Kindly, let us raise these concerns as they are taken to the county.
Salim Fareed – Feed The Children: Commercial toilets are closed too early: can we make them 24 hours?
Grace Wangare – Gatope: The Fresh life toilet is mine. I operate it according to my plans. However, we could have the county providing county toilets that function 24 hours and lower the prices.
Nyakundi: The Fresh Life toilets should operate 24 hours. For those without money, pledges can work for them to get access to use the toilet.
Grace – Gatope: Fresh Life is mine and I operate according to my preference. The county can provide toilets and place its people in charge.
Daniel Wambua – Feed The Children: For those of us who do not have money, I propose having a system where they are allowed to access the toilet and when they get money they can pay. We need a sewer system to provide toilets to all residents. We can pay the county on a monthly basis.
Grace – Feed The Children: Our leaders should meet and plan how they can assist us to have the toilets in the plots. We are fine with paying it in our rent even if they are Fresh Life toilet.
Daniel – Feed The Children: The government should put a sewer system for us. At least that way everyone will live in a place with access to water and toilet. Every line should have a sewer. Fresh Life has its own management, therefore let us live that out of our concerns.
Meremiya: There is a cost for going to the toilet and there is still a cost for going to the hospital. Why? Because of diseases. Then what solutions do we have for these problems?
Sammy Kioko: It is unfair for people to move from one zone to another just to access toilets. We will continue paying. The city county should provide toilets for each zone and have women groups to manage the toilets.The sewer lines will still cost us.
Shadrack: Is there anyone sleeping outside? No. If the county council agrees to put a sewer line, then every plot should have a toilet that way no one will have to go far. Be like us, we were united and fought to have things done in this area. If you people are divided, then you will never have Muungano. Nothing can be achieved working alone, we need each other. At the same time, let us stop depending on free things. Where we have to contribute to have better facilities, kindly let us cooperate. Stop arguing when developing has come our way.
Meremiya: As a community how can we stop people from throwing garbage in the drainage system so that we can stop spreading diseases and have a better society.
Mary: If we can cooperate out of volunteering, we can provide garbage bins at the entry of every plot.
Kioko: We can pay for the garbage collection.
Gibson - Gatope: Landlords should talk to tenants in order for them to pay.
Pastor: There is no place to dump the waste.
Gadhafi – Feed The Children : Involve the youths in these developments. Use them to get those blocking the sewer. There is no place money does not come into play to help make changes. We can pay for these services. We do not have the equipments to do these activities, all we have are our hands but we are ready to work. We do not have a dump site. The place we used to damp was changed and now other activities take place in that area.
Petronilla: Let me defend our children. These areas should be kept clean including toilets. At least our children will not have to play or help themselves in dirty places.
Brian: To have changes we need to reform. We worked with the county to take out garbage but we still have grown individuals who still dump garbage in the drainage system. No matter how big the sewer will be, if we are not responsible, it will still block. There should be a fine for the man caught dumping in wrong places, because that individual is our enemy. We deserve to have all basic facilities at our door step.
Sammy Kioko: We need our local leaders, MCAs and MPs, to be around.
James – Mombasa: We can be stupid. When one lives alone he or she takes care of everything compared to when people live together. Let us help each other to make a better society.
Omali – Gatope: We can come together to deal with waste collection and avoid dumping. I can start at my place and put up a place to collect garbage and collaborate with the youths to dispose the garbage, from there on others can also pick it up and do the same in their plots.
Lilian – Mombasa: We need our leaders to be present when we are presenting our issues because they are the one who will help us.
Zechariah Mwangi: I second the motion on having our leaders present. We need our leaders to oversee our plans to work together.
Wambua: Storm water should be separated from sewage water.
John: We should provide our opinions and solutions to our problems, instead of complaining about our leaders.
Facilitator: Proper sewer lines connected to the main sewer. Secondly good drainage systems will also be helpful.Cooperation among us during implementation.
Peter – Gatope: There is a septic tank built along the road, it hinders vehicles from passing. It would be better if it was below the surface.
Meremiya: Thank you for your opinion. At this point I will invite my colleague to take over on sanitation.
Discussion on Water
Kellen: What water challenges do you experience here?
Nyakundi – Feed The Children: At times water is scarce depending on the season. We go for long distances to look for water.
Lilian – Feed The Children: Our water is very dirty, causing illnesses like Cholera. The pipes pass on drainage and they are leaking.
Martin: We experience water scarcity because of leakages and the water mixes with sewer water.
Nicolas – Feed The Children: We usually have water scarcity most times. Only one pipe provides water and it is expensive.
Josephine – Gatope: There are illegal connections where people sell water they have re-routed to their tanks.
The water is not clean. We would prefer having piped water for each set of plots. We spend too much time and money purifying our water. The water stays for too long in the tanks, at times when using the water at home I notice it is smelling.
Petronilla - Mombasa: At times we can create a water point and surprisingly later on we find sewage flowing down the area we just put up a water point. Create proper water storage. Water points are not protected.
James - Mombasa: There are times we do not have enough water. Give us more water.
Richard – Feed The Children: We experience diseases all the time because of the pipes used for water. They use plastic which is easily contaminated. At the same time, they should stop putting water pipes in drainage areas.
Sammy Kioko - Gatope: Here in Reuben, when we have water scarcity the prices go up. Water becomes expensive a jerrican costs Ksh. 10 thus straining families. The county government should bring us water token.
Joseph – Feed The Children: People use water exhausters which are changed to become water buzzers to provide water to us. The water is not guaranteed to be clean and is still sold at a higher price.
Kellen: There was a research that was done last year and the issues uncovered are the same as the ones you have outlined. At the same time, the water comes from Nairobi water but why is it so costly for this community? There is a distribution chain which causes the water prices to be high depending on process it takes to reach you. What solutions do you have for this challenge?
Tabitha – Mombasa: We need piped water which should be at household level.
Grace – Feed The Children: The piped water should be metered.
Milkah – Feed The Children: We need token water which is cheaper. We have seen it in Mathare and it is working for them.
Brian – Gatope: Metered water will help us value it.
Nicholas - Mombasa: We should consider the expense of token water and if we can afford it. Look at your neighbors standard and see if he or she can afford to buy token water like the rest or how can you assist those who cannot afford it.
Harriet - Gatope: We are able to afford token water. No matter the situations that come up we have always been able to adapt easily.
Francis – Gatope: I second the motion on metered water. There are times fires break out, I cannot use my token water to put off a fire.
Regina – Feed The Children: Token water actually works in Mathare. It is actually affordable.
Nyakundi – Feed The Children: The government should monitor the water vendors and their quality of water. They should ensure the water is treated.
Sammy - Mombasa: How will we tackle different water preferences among plots?
Kellen: They will use water access standards, to make sure people do not strain. I am not an engineer at it, but the experts will provide the suitable options for various points.
Nyakundi – Feed The Children: Can we have aqua taps that are provided by NGOs.
Kellen: Thank you for your participation. Next we are to have the energy segment, unfortunately, the representative is absent and we would not like to present half information. The topic on energy will be discussed by the expert in the next segment.
AOB
Pastor: Let us nominate someone for the next consortium.
End Meeting
There being no other agenda, the meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m. with a closing prayer from the Pastor.