MP sets aside Sh. 5 million for water harvesting in public schools.

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.