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"id": 1025295,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nominated, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Dennitah Ghati",
"speaker": {
"id": 13514,
"legal_name": "Jacquiline Adhiambo Oduol",
"slug": "jacqueline-adhiambo-oduol"
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity to support the Report of this inquiry by the Departmental Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Water is an essential item. It is a basic need. It is, therefore, important that when we are talking about water, we talk about water that takes care of over 50 million Kenyans. This country has 50 million Kenyans who actually depend on water. If you look around, you will realise that majority of Kenyans, and especially those in rural areas, do not have access to clean and quality water. I am happy that this Report by the Committee has looked at the whole issue of auditing. We know that we have dams in this country that are not clear. Most Kenyans are not clear about which are Government dams and the ones that are constructed by donors. You will realise that even in this country, we have water that is taken care by donors, development partners and well- wishers. The World Bank, from where I come from, has all the time been constructing dams. That tells you that we have not put a lot of emphasis on dams as a country, in terms of the allocation and funding. We, as a country, have not put in a lot of effort in terms of allocating money to support dams in this country. We have left it to the churches, the World Bank and donors, to look at the issue of clean water in this country. I support this Report because if you look at the issue of water, it is the women and the girl child who leaves the comfort of their homes every day, in search of clean water. You will realise that girls and school going children leave schools to go with their mitungi to look for clean water. That is a lot of time wastage. I come from the County of Migori. Migori County has also had its own share of problems with water. We have dams in this country but the dams in Migori keep collapsing all the time. People are losing lives and things like that. I think we have a lot of money in this country that goes into other uses. We have not prioritised the need and the use of water in this country, to ensure that every homestead has access to good and quality water. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, in Kuria East, where I come from, we have dams like Kebarisia Dam. In Nyatike Constituency, which is in my county, we have Gogo Dam. We have another dam in Suna West called Nyamoe Dam. These are dams that have been constructed by the county government; it is also not clear whether they have been constructed by the county government or national Government. As my colleague, Hon. Were, said, we as a Parliament must ensure that in terms of our national budget, we prioritise the issue of water. Apart from health and education, the third sector that we, as a country, need to focus on is the issue of water. The Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation must also have a clear budget so that they are also able to deal with our concerns. We are living during the Coronavirus period. The issue of water becomes extremely important to ensure that families and homes have enough water to sanitise. We cannot talk about sanitisation and cleaning of hands when we do not have enough clean water to use. The Committee’s recommendations to conduct an audit of all the dams in Kenya is important. There are counties or constituencies in this country where you will not find dams. Community participation is also important. The reason you see construction of dams falling and collapsing is because the community has not been engaged. We must also stop politicising water in this country. That is why you see the issue of Kimwarer Dam. All the politics and corruption that have got into water are killing the good intentions that we have in terms of water. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}