The Lower Eastern Times Opening The Third Eye
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As the clock strikes 5 pm in Nairobi, John, a caretaker in an Embakasi apartment, is grappling with a four-hour battle to drain water from the ground floor, while irate tenants incessantly call his mobile phone.
The relentless hum and noisy pumping of a water pump, connected to an outlet pipe, echo in the background, releasing pockets of water onto the barely discernible drainage line. Lamentably, there is no clear drainage channel, compelling John to splash the water onto the streets.
This scene is not unique to John; various caretakers in Embakasi are engaged in similar struggles, evident in the competing sounds of water pumps attempting to outdo each other.
In the wake of heavy rainfall in specific Embakasi areas, Nairobi’s most densely populated region, as per the 2019 census by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), caretakers like John grapple with the task of draining waterlogged ground floors.
“It’s not easy to drain the entire ground floor using a bucket. I tried yesterday but could not achieve much,” says John, who has now resorted to ‘renting’ a water pump to address the aftermath of the recent downpour.
According to John, landlords bear additional expenses to ‘rent’ water pumps whenever rain leads to flooding. Ground-floor tenants faced a challenging weekend as floods entered their residences.
Sharleen Mwango, a resident of Kayole, woke up to a flooded house on Saturday morning. Living on the ground floor, near the gate, water seeped through, creating a mix of sewage and rainwater.
“This was a mixture of sewage and rainwater, very dirty water,” she said. Mwango is now contemplating moving to upper floors.
John reveals that tenants are requesting relocation to higher floors or considering leaving the apartment altogether. This flooding issue affects their business, and with expenses like fuel for water pumps not passed to tenants, landlords bear the cost.
Residents and landlords are appealing to both the national and county governments to construct proper drainage lines, particularly in Eastland areas. They cite improper building leveling, with foundations lower than adjacent roads, and poor estate planning as contributing factors to flooding inside buildings.
Residents believe that the government has overlooked Eastlands, asserting a lack of sufficient public amenities. They urge the government to prioritize the transformation of Eastland areas like Embakasi, Mukuru kwa Njenga, Kware, Pipeline, Tassia, Imara Daima, Kasarani, and Githurai.
