Sunjeev Kour Birdi

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 471 to 480 of 502.

• 16 Oct 2013 in National Assembly: Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as a natural way of taking control of the environment, we should plan for sand dams. Those dams will improve the lives of the poor people who do not have water at this point in time. I am aware that in every rural area, women give birth as they go to collect water. view
• 16 Oct 2013 in National Assembly: Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, in the case of Ukambani, there are children who are called Mwanzia because the mother gave birth while going to collect water. When properly facilitated, women can actually produce 30 per cent more capacity in terms of their lives. That 30 per cent increase is something very important to our country today. Dams will also reduce the cost of electricity by 20 per cent. As we know, investors in businesses today are leaving our country because of the cost of electricity and, as a country, we cannot afford that. view
• 16 Oct 2013 in National Assembly: Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, in January this year, after a series of very serious floods - just in a matter of months - we were all looking at ways of getting more water. That was because we had not harvested that water. As rain, drought and climate depletion keeps on affecting our country, we will also have to remember the reason why we have trees falling. It is because the roots are not very perfectly positioned on the ground. That is because the water table is far down the ground; as a result of non- sustainability within the environment. view
• 16 Oct 2013 in National Assembly: Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, in my opinion – and I am sure many hon. Members will agree with me - dams are long-term solutions and it takes, at least, five to seven years for projects to be implemented. As we know today, as a long-term solution, we have rampant borehole drilling. If human beings do not get water, that situation will persist. But there is a problem when we have cow-boy borehole drillers going about their business, drilling as if they do not care and going against NEMA regulations. That makes the situation worse. I believe there is need to ... view
• 16 Oct 2013 in National Assembly: Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as we put up about dams, we have to think about the negative impact. As we do that, we actually displace people who are living there. Therefore, those people need to be compensated and that is why I keep on going back to say that construction of dams is a long-term solution. That is because it is not easy to take care of the people. view
• 16 Oct 2013 in National Assembly: In some areas, people have refused to leave because that is their ancestral home. Of course, that is something we need to look into. I also believe that while we are looking at dams, we need to look at rain harvesting. This is something which will work very well in the urban areas. In the rural areas, it is difficult to expect somebody who is very poor to think of, leave alone starting rain harvesting. 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. view
• 16 Oct 2013 in National Assembly: Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, flooding and drought leads to loss of lives. It leads to destruction of roads, infrastructure and un-hygienic conditions in some areas because toilets are actually submerged due to floods. That brings a lot of un-hygienic conditions. Bridges are washed away. Everything that we have is destroyed and we start from zero again. I would like to add that at this point in time, we have five dams in our country and some of them need proper rehabilitation. That is something that we need to look into. On top of that, I urge the Government that we ... view
• 16 Oct 2013 in National Assembly: Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, water is responsible for 70 to 75 per cent of our agriculture. As you know, our Government is looking into increasing agricultural production, but what better way than looking at this pro-actively. Let us look at it pro- actively, instead of finding faults and asking ourselves later on what happened. I also want to bring another fact onto the table that in 2008 to 2011, according to the National Drought Management Authority, drought caused Kenya an amount of Kshs969 billion in damages and losses. Without urgent action, that impact will worsen. view
• 16 Oct 2013 in National Assembly: With those remarks, I would like to look for support from hon. Members. I would like to tell them that water plans have already been made. You will probably be happier if you go to your constituency and find that many water plans have been made. What is remaining is to pass legislation to effect those things. I would like to ask my friend, hon. Peter Weru, to second this Motion. view
• 9 Oct 2013 in National Assembly: Thank you very much, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. As I stand to support this very noble Motion that has been forwarded by hon. Charles Nyamai, I would like to say that lack of a proper Information and Communications Technology (ICT) system and lack of consolidated database is one of the biggest causes of corruption in our country. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when we look at the process of obtaining these documents, it is quite shocking. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, how does a person from, maybe, Ukambani or any other place, get information if he wants to apply ... view