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"id": 207629,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Ahenda",
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"legal_name": "Paddy Ahenda",
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"content": "We can send them water bills every month. We have given them our natural resources for free while they sell theirs to us. Time has come that a country like Egypt cannot dictate to us what we should do with our own natural resources. We are not dictating to them what they should do with their natural resources. I blame the officers at Maji House because Egypt has never stopped us from utilising water in Lake Victoria. What have they done so that these people come and stop us? Nothing! Even at the source, they have done nothing. So, time has come when we should start utilising our water for the benefit of this country and wait for the Egyptians to come and stop us. From there on, we can talk of the treaty. We talk of the treaty and we do not even use that water. So, there is no need for all the hullabaloo about this treaty. The war on this treaty is taking us nowhere. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in my own constituency, several years back, we had the Oyugis Water Project Phase 1. Since the 1970s, I have never seen any of the officers even coming there. Since I came to this House, I have sent them several letters informing them that Oyugis Phase II Water Project is long overdue. They have done nothing about this water project. The previous speaker said that there was to be water for everybody by the year 2000. So, if 2000 came and went, should we forget that policy? Can they not have another one even if there will be water for everybody by 2050? What are they doing? Can they tell us and then we will have water for everybody in this country? There must be a policy of having water or they just keep quiet and say God for us all and everybody for himself! There should be a clear defined policy on water. 3392 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 22, 2007 When do they want us to get water? I also do not support this jargon; whether we should have clean, piped and running water. Let us have water even if it muddy water. We will purify it ourselves. Can we have water near our houses? Can we have that water in everybody's house, so that whether it will be piped that can come later? The other day, we passed the vote of the Ministry of Energy. We commended them because they have a policy that they want to supply electricity to every institution. Can the Ministry of Water and Irrigation have a similar policy and start to supply water to every primary and secondary school? A student will feel very comfortable if he drinks water even if he did not have lunch. In fact, he will go back to the classroom. However, there is no water for students to drink. That is why some of them drop out of school because they go back to class on empty stomachs. They feel very hungry. I had a typical example in my constituency just two months ago. Through the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF), I supplied water to one of the primary schools. The report I got from that school was fantastic. The enrolment went up threefold. Students that used to go for lunch and never come back are now staying in the classrooms. During lunch break, those who cannot afford food just go to drink that cold water. They feel very comfortable, pour some on their heads and feel cool enough and go back to the classrooms. This is the policy that the Ministry of Water and Irrigation should have. They should have water in every institution by a certain period like the Minister of Energy is doing with electricity and that will be helpful. However, I have never seen such a blueprint coming from this Ministry. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we should have man-made lakes. I have never seen them in this country. Man-made lakes should be big and not the size of dams. We should graduate from dams into lakes. The army should go into those arid areas and make a huge lake that steamers can even run in, as a means of preserving water. That can be a storage of water. By the way, if you create such a big lake in those semi-arid areas, all of a sudden the areas will become green. This Ministry should create those lakes. Once it does that, we will never have those arid areas any more because the moisture evaporating from those lakes will cool North Eastern Province and those other arid areas. They will grow trees, crops and even use it for irrigation. You mean Kenyans cannot create man-made lakes which are created in India and other countries? We are capable, but we do not have a policy to that effect. It is high time they did a study of creating such lakes which could preserve water. A lot of water is being wasted when storms and heavy rains occur. Water flows into the lakes, Indian Ocean, Sudan and even to Egypt. I was watching a documentary on how our soil is being washed away by this water. Every year, the Egyptians are very happy because good alluvial soil from Kenya is deposited at the estuaries of Damiatta and Rosetta which are entering the Mediterranean Sea. This is soil coming from Kasipul Kabondo and these people are just sitting there. I am glad the officers are here listening to this. They should take notes and preserve that water in those man-made lakes, so that we can use it when time comes. The Ministry should have a master plan for everybody in this country. It should take a data base that we have water. It is very costly, but it does not matter. Give us the cost. Let us know the billions of shillings you need. It should create awareness. Do not wait until people ask. Sometimes you can even create employment by inducing this type of employment. You should do this by going to the people instead of waiting for them to come to us. This is what the Ministry should do. The time has come when this Ministry should change its attitude. They could be having millions of shillings from wananchi if this water was there. These people could pay a little amount of money as water bills. They could get billions of shillings. If they did this, they would not be disturbing the Exchequer for money to do development. Time has come when our Ministries should change from getting money from the Exchequer and instead mint their own money and bring it to the Exchequer, before asking us to give them more money. August 22, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3393 With those remarks, I beg to support."
}