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{
    "id": 1279910,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1279910/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 355,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon (Dr) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support this Bill with a lot of caution. Water is partly a devolved and national Government function. The bulk water is under the national Government. Between the national and county governments, many water Boards have not been highly efficient. County governments do not have enough bulk water to distribute, and the Boards are inefficient. In the end, people get very little water at the grassroots level. The introduction of the PPP may support this. It will help in the middle-level distribution and partly the bulk water. I do not think there are private bodies that will take huge bulk water as the national Government. More importantly, we must look at water management at the county level in distribution at the grassroots level, considering the nature of our terrains and how our housing and villages are potted all over the place. It is extremely important. Sometimes, I wish we had communal living where living in towns or villages would be easy. Although I support the Bill, I am concerned about the cost. Once the private sector comes in, we must be extremely careful about controlling the costs. From the experience in this country, every time the private sector comes in—despite having the Public Private Partnerships Act in place—it usually swallows the public sector. Ultimately, it is the private sector that works, and then the cost goes up, making it impossible to deal with. Look at what happened with the universities. When we relaxed and said we could support private and public universities, we had to reverse that situation because of what happened. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I support this Bill. It will be very important for the tariffs and how water is charged to be strictly controlled. This should be both a national Government and county government function. We should also have ratings in other areas of revenue collection. This will protect the people. Otherwise, our people will start redirecting water from the rivers and set up small dams to sell the water to people without looking at the effects on the environment. Therefore, Hon. Temporary Speaker, I support this Bill with a lot of caution."
}