MP sets aside Sh. 5 million for water harvesting in public schools.
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Thika Town MP Patrick Wainaina shares some light moments with some youth after attending a church service at St. John's ACK Happy Valley Church in Landless Estate Thika on Sunday. |
Thika Town Constituency has set aside KES. 5 million to
undertake water harvesting programmes in public schools across the constituency.
MP Eng. Patrick Wainaina the money will be used to trap rainwater and storing it in tanks with
the programme scheduled to kick off in Ngoliba Primary School in Thika East
Sub-County.
Speaking on Sunday
during the consecration of St. John ACK Happy Valley Church in Landless
Estate, Wainaina said that his administration had prioritised provision of
water in schools due to perennial acute water shortages that have forced learners
to at times carry drinking water to school.
Besides rainwater harvesting, the MP said that they would
evaluate the viability of the boreholes sunk in some schools in the
constituency and if found to be economically viable, complete their sinking and
treatment as a measure to cushion learning institutions against water scarcity.
He appealed to the county government to improve on water
provision to residents especially in areas that suffered frequent water
outages. He particularly singled out Landless area where a borehole sank by
THIWASCO to supplement the river water supply turned out to contain water with
very high percentage of fluoride.
“We appreciate the county government’s efforts to improve
clean water accessibility to residents and their KES 60 billion water dam
project is a good initiative. However, we need to have short-term projects that
will cushion residents from scarcity of water,” said Wainaina.
He suggested to the county government to seek cheaper alternatives
to provide better quality water to Landless residents if at all treating the
borehole water proved to be very expensive.
He appealed to churches investing in Thika to consider
setting up polytechnics to accommodate the high number of learners completing
primary and secondary education and those who drop out of school for various
reasons.
“Vocational skills acquired in these institutions contribute
significantly to entrepreneurship development and in the labour
market either as workers in business or in self-employment. The church can play
a very big role in empowering our youth through provision of accessible,
appropriate and quality training in technical, vocational, industrial,
entrepreneurship and life skills,” explained the Thika legislator.
He also called on the County Government of Kiambu to consider
allocating more resources to Thika Town as it was the primary source of revenue
for the county, contributing more than half the county revenue collection.
“Thika needs to get a bigger revenue allocation from the county
government as it is the biggest contributor in terms of revenue collection. This
way we will grow our economy and contribute more resources to the county and to
the country in general,” said Wainaina.
Meanwhile, Kiambu Senator Kimani Wamatangi has announced
that Senate has approved an extra KES. 1 billion to Kiambu County to ease in
its service delivery to the residents.
Wamatangi added that Senate was in the process of passing a
bill that will see counties such as Kiambu that offered services to residents
from other counties get awarded some kitty to help them serve all people
without any difficulties.
“Next week we have a sitting with the Commission on Revenue
Allocation (CRA) where we will propose the allocation of the extra money
to help these counties serve people better. However, we call on county
governments to spend all monies allocated to them prudently, otherwise we will
demand a refund of any money found to have been misappropriated,” warned the
senator.
He said that it was unfortunate that Kiambu County still
lagged behind several counties in terms of development despite its proximity to
the capital city and favourable environment for growth.
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