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{
    "id": 499247,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/499247/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 114,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ndiritu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1539,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Mathenge Ndiritu",
        "slug": "samuel-mathenge-ndiritu"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Deputy Speaker. Mine is just to add a voice and give a bit of history of the water sector in the country. We started with the Water Act, when it was all under the national Government. Then we had the Water Act, 2002, where the water sector partly remained with the Government and part of it was liberalized. Service boards were created and water providers. We had water service providers, namely, the companies that were supplying water. The service boards have been doing a lot of infrastructural development. They have held all the infrastructure that existed in trust for the Government. We know that they have been supplying water. The proposed Water Bill is coming in to align the water systems with the new Constitution. We know that water supply and service provision is in the county governments. The storage of water and the water works have been proposed to be a function of the national Government. The Bill as it stands proposes that we have a national water works, which will be a strategic Government institution that will deal with the national infrastructure. We have water catchment areas, for example, the Lake Victoria and the Tana River catchment areas which are cross-cutting. The Bill proposes that the water infrastructure remains in the national Government. For example, we have systems like the Ndakaini where water comes from Murang’a, past Kiambu and to Nairobi. We have water coming from Nyandarua all the way through Kiambu into Nairobi. This is cross-cutting. A catchment like Tana cuts across seven counties. For that reason, it will be impossible for water to be confined to a county. The proposal in the Bill will solve some of the problems that may be encountered. We have had the Mining Bill where the Senate is saying that it is supposed to be counties affair, but I urge the Members to understand that some of these national resources like water remain a function of the Central Government. Being a Member of the Committee, I am surprised that after spending many hours discussing and getting views from the many stakeholders, at the end of the day, it is being claimed that the Bill was supposed to have originated somewhere else. Water is a natural resource and should be seen as such. The National Assembly is in order to discuss and pass this Bill. I would like to urge the Members, now that we will be headed for the Third Reading, it is not perfect. We have proposed many amendments even as Members of the Committee. We know that water is life. We have had many issues and we know that there was to be clean drinking water in every household by the year 200. We have since pushed that and now we are headed for Vision 2030. This Bill is supposed to fast-track this so that we can get water to our people. We know that this is a right that every person should 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."
}