Donkeys being used to fetch the precious commodity.

By JANE GICHARU Posted Monday, March 16 2009 at 20:48

In Summary

Some boreholes have dangerous chemicals but residents have no alternative sources

Water scarcity is probably the biggest headache for residents of Kajiado town, most of who are spending more money on it than food.

Ironically this scarcity has opened money making opportunities for many people in the town and the surrounding areas, who are now selling water for a living.

Trade in water is perhaps the most lucrative business in the town and has attracted both the rich and the ordinary folk.

Anyone with water to sell has a ready market as residents buy the commodity without complaining about the high prices or the source.

The affluent have drilled boreholes and bought tankers to transport water to thirsty individuals and institutions while the ordinary vendors are using hand carts, bicycles and wheelbarrows to transport it from the boreholes to homes at between Sh20 and Sh30 for a 20-litre container.

The town has five private boreholes and at least 20 water tankers of various sizes which are always supplying water to the growing population while hundreds of young people have invested in hand-carts and bicycles which they are using to transport water from the boreholes to consumers at a fee.

Selling charcoal

Enterprising Maasai women who previously earned a living by selling charcoal have abandoned that trade and are using their donkeys to ferry water from boreholes and shallow wells in the villages for sale in Kajiado town.

All the water vendors interviewed confirmed that indeed, they are making a fortune.

“One donkey carries 80 litres at a time,” Mama Sintaloi ene Kimiti, who supplies water to civil servants in government quarters and council houses at the district headquarters, said.

“With my three donkeys, I make Sh200 per trip,” she said. She is able to make at least five trips in a day.

She says that the water crisis in the town is a blessing for her and about 100 other women from her village who are today major suppliers to residents who cannot buy it in bulk either because they cannot afford or due to lack of storage facilities.

A mother of four, Ms Sintaloi says she is able to feed, clothe and educate her children without straining financially. Unlike previous years, she was able to pay school fees at once for her first born child, who is in form three at a local secondary school.

The other mothers who have joined the trade tell similar stories of how their lives have improved since the water crisis hit Kajiado town sometime last year.

The chairman of the Intinyika community, Mr Jonathan Manang’oi, says the women no longer struggle to pay the Sh200 monthly fee at the bore hole.

A cyclist who joined the water vending business in December last year told this writer that he was making an average of Sh1,000 a day. He is among those who get water from a bore hole in the town at Sh5 for a 20-litre container and later sell the same at between Sh20 and Sh25.

Our survey has revealed that most consumers in the town are, surprisingly, not bothered about the source of the water they use in their homes. Many said they had heard that water from some of the boreholes was not safe but still continued to buy it without enquiring about the source.

“It’s not that we don’t care about the quality of the water we are buying but do we have a choice?’’ a mother in Majengo residential area asked.