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{
    "id": 701507,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/701507/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 349,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, according to documents tabled before the Murang’a County Assembly Committee, the project is scheduled to be carried in five phases. The Committee found that this will adversely affect the livelihoods of the people of Murang’a. I do not need to go to the specific phases, but more to the issue. The concern of the County Assembly and of this Senate is that the implementation of this project will adversely affect the livelihood of the people of Murang’a. That is the issue raised. The Northern Water Collector Tunnel is a new raw water transfer in three meters diameter tunnel along the eastern flinches of the Aberdares Conservation area, approximately 60 kilometres north of Nairobi. The tunnel will transfer raw water from intakes at the Maragwa, Gikigie and Irati rivers to an outlet at the Githika River near Makomboki upstream of the existing Ndakaini Dam in Gatanga and Kigumo sub- counties. Those are the facts. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, what did the Assembly find in their inquiry? First and foremost, I think the government should come out clearly on this, both the Senate and Murang’a County Assembly representing the people of Murang’a and the Nairobi County Assembly representing the people of Nairobi because all these counties are affected by this project. What did the assembly find out? So far, the Assembly says no approval of the project has been issued by the Water Resource Management Authority (WRMA) as it is pending licensing by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) in accordance with the Environmental Management and Coordination Act, 1999 and the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulation, 2003. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this project was being implemented without the necessary licensing from the relevant bodies. This is a breach of the Constitution and the law. The Senate together with the Murang’a County Assembly would like to know why this happened. If it was an oversight, those regulatory authorities should explain to us why such an important project was implemented without the proper and necessary licensing from Government agencies. Let me go further to the recommendations by the County Assembly on this matter because we have little time to go into details but I just want to give the facts. The Committee’s recommendations for the proposed Northern Water Collector Tunnel were many. I just want to zero in on three because of time. The Committee recommends that 40 per cent of the treated water shall be supplied to the people of Murang’a as a condition precedent to the implementation of the project. This is understandable if you remember Sen. (Dr.) Zani’s Bill which said that in the use of natural resources, the people or counties from which that natural resource is extracted should share in the benefits of the natural resource. As to whether it can be 40 per cent or any other percentage, that can be discussed. Secondly, the current proposal to abstract 140,000 cubic meters of water is unsustainable in view of the demand for water downstream. The Committee, therefore, recommends that the abstracted water should be reduced by 50 per cent in order to safeguard the environment. These proposals are important, and I think they should be taken into account. Those percentages proposed can be varied but the project cannot continue to be implemented if the proposals are not implemented. These are very scientific and understandable proposals made by Murang’a County Assembly and the technical committee. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}