RAW SEWER CONTAMINATING L. NAIVASHA

A file photo of raw sewer flowing into a river.

Naivasha sewerage Treatment Company has been accused of contaminating Lake Naivasha waters by failing to treat raw sewer.

Chairperson Lake Naivasha Water Resource Users Association (LANAWARUA) Enock Kiminta, claimed that raw sewer from the plant was finding its way into the lake and no action has been taken by the company to address the menace.

Kiminta however said that stakeholders had recommended the closure of the treatment plant since it was not serving its intended purpose and instead was polluting the lake and exposing the marine life to health hazards.

“It is well known that the sewer plant continues to discharge effluent into the lake putting the fish we consume under threat,” he said.

Kiminta told the press in Naivasha that as a result of the discharges, the riparian land around the lake had been destroyed with small scale farmers who were carrying out farming activities around the same lake making the pollution even worse.

He said National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) had targeted large scale farmers majority of whom are flower growers with permanent structures leaving out small scale residents who were tilling the riparian illegally.

He cited the riparian land around Manera area which he said was completely destroyed by the small-scale farmers illegally occupying the land and who purported to have been allocated the land as former freedom fighters.

Saying the Water Act of 2016 was very clear on the conservation and protection of the riparian land, the chairman warned that if the illegal activities were not curtailed, the aquatic life in the lake would be endangered.

He said the stakeholders were proposing that the county and national governments move with speed and restore the riparian reserve as per the 1892 meters above sea level contour line or risk losing the water resource.

Kiminta said all activities on the land should be brought to a halt and those who have encroached on it by erecting permanent structures be removed with immediate effect.

A representative from Friends of Lake Naivasha Fred Muthui said the presence of water hyacinth in the lake remained a big threat and called for similar efforts as those at in Lake Victoria to remove the dreaded weed to be employed to Lake Naivasha as one way of saving the life of the water body.

Pollution hot-sport-A file photo of raw sewer flowing downstream into a river.