Even before the storm sparked by CORD leader Raila Odinga over the Northern Water Collector Tunnel project in Murang’a cools down, another row has emerged over a water project in the Rift Valley region.
On Monday, Odinga flew to the South Rift region and held a three-hour private meeting with Kipsigis leaders over the Itare dam project in Kuresoi said to cost Sh34 Billion.
Despite Deputy President William Ruto giving the project a wide berth, residents claim the Jubilee administration has failed to convince them that the project would not lead to an ecological disaster.
The project funded by the Italian government has been marred by controversy following claims that public participation was not carried out.
The Kipsigis Council of Elders led by their Chairman Isaiah Cheluget maintain that the project will divert water from the Mau Forest complex and lead to the drying of rivers such as Chemosit, Ndoinet, Sondu, Kipsonoi, Ndoinet among others.
Kenya signed an agreement with Italy’s BNP Paribas and Intesa San Paolo Bank in July last year for the construction of the mega dam in Ndoinet, Kuresoi.
The 57m-high dam, which is expected to produce 100,000 cubic metres of water in a day, will have three permanent tributaries that include Sondu, Ndoinet and Songol rivers.
After its completion, the project, which has seen hundreds of residents hired for casual works, will benefit over 800,000 residents of Kuresoi, Molo, Njoro, Rongai and Nakuru town with clean and reliable piped water.
This comes days after Odinga sparked a storm in the country by claiming that the Nothern Tunnel Collector project would turn Murang’a, Garissa, Ukambani and Tana River regions into a desert due to the secrecy in its design.
The government was put on the defensive, with Water Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa being forced to shed more light on the project that had raised anxiety among Kenyans.
The CS refuted the CORD leader’s claims, noting that an adequate environmental assessment had been done and the project would neither lead to desertification nor was it being conducted in secrecy.
