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{
    "id": 93260,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/93260/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 161,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Obure",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Public Works",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 118,
        "legal_name": "Christopher Mogere Obure",
        "slug": "christopher-obure"
    },
    "content": "I am very impressed by the manner in which the Ministry of Water and Irrigation has performed its role in recent years, especially from the time the current Minister was appointed. We have seen the Ministry change its image and the level of its performance. We have seen many activities, especially in the rural areas being carried out by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. The regional water services have raised their level of efficiency in the last few years. For all that, I commend the Minister, the Permanent Secretary and the senior staff at the Ministry. The Ministry has been involved in rehabilitation and expansion of water supply systems around the country. We have heard that they have just completed 12 urban water systems. They have also provided another 28 water supply systems in the rural areas. This is important and it is exactly what we expect this Ministry to do. We all have an obligation to support this Ministry to ensure that it accomplishes its mandate. We have seen a lot of activities in the area of drilling of boreholes in search of water. We have seen construction of dams and pans going on in various parts of the country. This is good and we encourage the Ministry to go ahead and carry out these activities. However, I want to propose that the future of this country in terms of provision of clean water lies in the area of rain water harvesting. We have huge chunks of land in this country, which have huge potential, but they cannot be productive because of lack of water. I believe that some of those areas can be put into productive use if we supplied water to those areas. It is for this reason that I want to appeal to this House to support the Ministry by way of providing more funds, so that these funds can be invested in the area of water harvesting. The other area is irrigation. I believe that a great deal of emphasis should be given to irrigation. Only last year, some funds were invested in irrigation projects under the Economic Stimulus Programme and the returns have been extremely pleasing. I wish we, as a House, could vote more funds to this Ministry to be invested in irrigation projects, so that we can stop relying on rain-fed agriculture. This is something that we should seriously think about. I want to appeal to this House to seriously consider giving more money to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation because any investment in water provision will translate into a reduction in expenditure in public health. We would be saving huge sums of money if we provided clean water to our people because a lot of patients are in hospitals today because of waterborne diseases. We need to be wary of this and vote more money for the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, so that it can provide clean water to Kenyans. It is important for us to do so. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, under the Constitution that we have just voted for, water is no longer a privilege to Kenyans. It is a right. Every Kenyan has a right to get clean water and the obligation is on the Government to provide it. With those remarks, I second the Motion."
}