Narok County Government Sets aside over Sh570 million, For Rehabilitation of The Town’s Drainage Systems

Author: JKekanae, Narok Let’s Talk

Narok, despite it’s enormous resource, biggest producer of beef, wheat and barley and proximity to the world famous Masai Mara Game Reserve, it is located in a basin-like terrain. Narok was an unplanned town prone to deadly flash floods each time it had heavily rained due to lack of proper drainage systems.
The County had set aside over Sh570 million, awarding tenders to companies that would employ casual laborers to rehabilitate the town’s drainage systems, complete five flood check dams, work on reinforcing the huge trenches with concrete and build water pans on the outskirts of Narok town as the flood-prone county prepared for the heavy rain in the past years. Machines were deployed to expand the main drainage in Narok Town, where 15 lives were lost in April 2015 when floods hit the area.
The dams and water pans build by the county government can hold back about 80 per cent of the storm water. The existing flood paths through the town were also unclogged to ease the flow of water. The projects were commissioned to stop frequent flooding that had ravaged the area for long – leading to loss of lives and property worth millions in terms of shops, eateries, vehicles and buildings that were swept by floods. “We are committed to ensuring that residents do not suffer or die like in the last rainy season and we will ensure floods are a thing of the past.” Said the Governor.
Most of the property lost during floods in town belonged to small scale business owners and traders who had threatened to stop remitting taxes until the government addressed the flooding menace. The business community expressed their fears when some projects had been delayed and wanted measures taken by relevant authorities to avert death and destruction of property over the predicted heavy rains.
As the County government is taking measures to ensure that through taxes paid by mwananchi, the drainage system is improved to ensure that there will be no more cases of loss of lives during flash floods. But what action is Wanjiku taking to ensure they are equally safe? Is Wanjiku keeping off riparian land? Food for thought.