Lamu residents warned of water crisis as wells dry up

A water shortage looms on Lamu Island and its environs following the drying up of key wells.

Lamu Water and Sewerage Company says 20 out of its 30 sand dunes wells have dried up and water levels in the remaining ones have gone down.

“We have 1,800 consumers with water connections in their houses and our daily supply capacity has dropped from 2,000 cubic metres to 1,500 cubic metres due to the drought. We cannot pump beyond 3,000 cubic metres daily due to the possibility of siltation,” said the company’s technical manager, Mr Badawy Sura.

Mr Sura, however, said there should be no cause for alarm, despite Public Health and Sanitation ministry’s warning of a likely outbreak of water-borne diseases.

He said in an interview on Tuesday that dilapidated pipes had also led to loss of water through leakages.

Lamu County public health officer Athman Dumila has given a public notice that the decline in water supply had led to unhygienic conditions in some homes.

“We wish to urge the public to observe high standards of hygiene and use chlorine to treat water unless one is consuming tap water,” added Mr Dumila.

The Public Health and Sanitation ministry has criticised Lamu county council for not collecting garbage in the tourist town despite numerous warnings.

“We have written several times to the council on the poor sanitation facing the town but the council has shown little interest in addressing the situation,” the public notice states.

Mr Sura said that most of the problems would be addressed once a Sh288 million World Bank-funded water project was completed. It includes drilling of additional wells.  DailyNation