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{
    "id": 57681,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/57681/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 265,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Eng. Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister should, therefore, take heart. It is not possible to distribute such a scarce commodity without evoking emotions. Some people will feel they have been left out, and others will also feel that justice has been done to them. Personally, I thank her because the part of the country where I come from water services were never there, but now, at least, we are getting to see some of the water services. One of the challenges highlighted in the Report, which poses constraints in the provision of water in the country, is the declining water resources due to catchment degradation and climate change. Our country, Kenya, has a total land surface of 582,000 square kilometers. That is equivalent to 582 billion square meters. The average annual rainfall in Kenya is 1,500 millimeters. This works out to 873 billion cubic meters per year, or 2.3 billion cubic meters per day. If you divide this by the population of Kenya it comes to about 57.5 cubic meters per person per day, if we were to rely on rain water. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, just harvesting a mere one per cent of all the rain water that falls on the Kenyan land surface will guarantee every Kenyan 575 litres of water a day, which is more than ten times the average daily requirement for domestic use. Why am I saying this? Everyone knows the world is now going green. We are trying to use the natural resources that we have as much as possible. The challenge has been put to us. Only last week, I am sure the Minister noticed it, the United Nations (UN) Secretary- General opened the first green building, I think, in the world. That building uses exclusively rain water. I want to encourage the Minister and I have said it here before, that we have this big and available resource called rain water. I know that efforts are being made to try to maximize the use of rainwater, but this resource is available. It is free and in plenty. In fact, sometimes it is a bit of a challenge to us. Yemen which is in a state of war only receives 50 millimeters of rain in a year, but the main source of water is rain. Ours is 1,500 millimeters in a year, which is about 30 times what Yemen receives. I would encourage the Minister to come up with policies, so that Kenyans can benefit from this freely available resource."
}