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{
    "id": 496953,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/496953/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 192,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. S.S. Ahmed",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 140,
        "legal_name": "Ahmed Shakeel Shabbir Ahmed",
        "slug": "shakeel-shabbir"
    },
    "content": "This Water Bill that is coming up has gone the same old way that the World Bank wanted. They tried to push for privatization. I shall be bringing some changes at the Committee Stage but at this moment, I would suggest that there is no community participation or devolution involved in the water sector. In my constituency, there is a water treatment plant in Kajolo and it treats water and sends it down to the city and the people who live next to the water supply have no water. So, water seems to be the preserve of the rich and so this Bill is not pro poor. This needs to be sorted out. We need to make sure that the Water Bill has not forgotten about sanitation. Water and sanitation go together. The water is the one that makes the money, the sanitation is the necessary item that must work with it. The Water Bill has forgotten all about sanitation. As a result, there are barons making a lot of money on selling illegal water but nobody wishes to follow up on sanitation. So, that is one major point that this Bill has forgotten. This Bill has also brought up the Water Sector Trust Fund. I was in workshops and I was against this proposal because it puts it under the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resource and tries to change the whole financing in the water sector. It believes that since privatization has failed, they should now put up the Water Services Regulatory Authority, the Water Resources Management Authority and the distribution at all levels as they are now devolving. The Water Bill is trying to suggest that there is devolution. The county governments’ role in the distribution of water to the poor is definitely not there and I feel that it is very important that the county government is involved. My final point is that privatization has failed in Kenya and I do not think the Water Bill that is coming up here should follow the same lines."
}