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{
    "id": 494989,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/494989/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 208,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mbui",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1750,
        "legal_name": "Robert Mbui",
        "slug": "robert-mbui"
    },
    "content": "Eventually, I expect that we will be able to manage this water by first protecting our catchment areas. We need to have a source of water. It has been unfortunate in this country that from a while back, whenever we have had issues of protection of resources like water, politics would rear its ugly head. Last time, we were had an issue with Mau Forest, which supplies water even our city. People had settled into that forest and taken over its land. When they were being pushed out, it became political. Now, the same problem is still there. One of the things that we need to figure out is how we will avoid politicising water management and protect the water catchment areas. The other issue is fairness in distribution of the water resource. It is unfortunate that there are some places, for example my county of Machakos, where in Masinga we have a lot of water. This water is harvested and delivered to another county, namely Kitui and the people of Machakos, in particular Masinga, are left without water. It is important that these bodies address these issues. People must get the benefit of the resource that originates in their area. Before water goes to another county or area, the locals must benefit from it. It has also been said by people from the Aberdares area that water is going to other places. Recently, we heard of a tiff between the governor on that side and the Nairobi County Government on issues of water management and catchment areas. Let us look into the issue of fairness in the distribution of water. On the issue of contamination, because there are a lot of problems of contamination, I want to mention that recently in Makueni, there was a problem like that. Water was contaminated and there was belief that it was contaminated by people who wanted to chase others from certain areas. I want to propose very heavy penalties for anyone who is guilty of contamination of water. That needs to be completely prohibited, so that people do not attempt to contaminate water knowingly. Our Constitution says that we will be provide people with clean drinking water. But if you go to some areas, you will find that we have dams from which people take water for their use, and at the same time their cattle drink water from the same dams. There is need for regulation of the use of our dams. This includes the design of the dams. We may probably insist that all of them should be fenced off and cattle should drink water from another region, so that we do not increase water borne diseases that are caused by contaminated water. I want to mention the issue of permits. I have seen there is a proposal for a body that will be issuing permits. I want to suggest that when rates for these permits are fixed, they should not be very high. Unfortunately, the higher the cost of the permit, the higher the cost of the water to the user. Therefore, it is important to ensure that this is not very prohibitive. It should not be very high. At the same time, I would like to mention the issue of the cost of water. In my constituency, we have several water projects. The management committees of each of those water projects charge whatever they feel like. There is need for a standardized cost of water within certain regions, depending on the source, the cost implication and the investment to extract that water. It is important that we come up with very clear regulation of the cost and the management of water. Many of the committees that are formed at the grassroots collect money as they sell water, and at the end of the day when something breaks down, they do not repair it. Most of these committees are even funded by the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). They go running to the CDF and say a 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."
}