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{
    "id": 93299,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/93299/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 200,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mrs. Ngilu",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Water and Irrigation",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 111,
        "legal_name": "Charity Kaluki Ngilu",
        "slug": "charity-ngilu"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to thank all those hon. Members of Parliament who made their contribution on this Motion. We feel very encouraged by what they have said to us on what we need to do. Some of the issues that have been raised here, we have made note of; hon. Members have highlighted issues, especially on water harvesting, protection and conservation of catchment areas and proper utilization of resources that we are getting. I want to assure all hon. Members that the resources that we will get will be used for the purposes for which we have said they will be used. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have also noted some of the issues that hon. Members have raised. I have noted the report that has been laid on the Table of the House by Mr. Musyimi and we want to assure you that the issues that have come out will be looked into, including the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation investigations that are still ongoing. I think they will soon be concluded, so that we know how these high pending bills came about. We are nearly there; therefore, I will soon be tabling a report in this House. Another issue is that we need to set out a clear criteria on the allocations that we make to the districts, and appreciate that there is need for equitable distribution of the resources, bearing in mind the marginalized districts. I want to assure hon. Members that we will do that. Issues of governance that have been raised are also coming into play and some of the quarrels that we have been seeing in the newspapers. As you know, where there are resources, and what this country is going through--- There are people who have known where resources are and when they are not used properly. I want to inform hon. Members that when they see things like those, they need to know that we are on top of things. If the Ministry cannot address them, we always involve the other arms of Government to investigate them and take control of them. Regarding the issues of food production in this country, we do know that as long as we rely on rain-fed agriculture, we shall not be able to produce adequate food for this country. Therefore, bearing in mind what we just went through when we spent so much money to import food, there is need for us to increase water storage; therefore, we need to increase the construction of large dams, and we have started. At the moment, we have only four large dams that are on-going. We completed one, but that was for domestic water purposes in Machakos. The other four large dams that are on-going will be completed by the year 2013 and will be used for irrigation. I noted one hon. Member said that we do get up to 1 trillion cubic metres of rain every year and we never make use of it. We need to understand that if other countries like Egypt can feed their own people, Kenya too can feed its own people. On issues of water, sanitation and sewerage, we are still very low on the number of people who can access sewerage and sanitation services in this country. I think this is something that we will have to deal with. Finally, I noted what Mr. ole Ntimama said about Narok Town and the problems of water in that town. I want to assure him that we have got money up to about Kshs600 million; it will be provided by JICA. Water programmes in that place will soon be on. In respect of the Northern Water Services Board, Members of Parliament who have had issues with it during the drought, we did what we could but we can still do better. I am happy that it was not as bad as it would have been. I want to assure you that the Ministry is very committed to doing what we need to do to ensure that Kenyans get access to clean water, including reducing tariffs. I beg to move and I thank you very much."
}