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| Water and Sanitation Principal Secretary Julius Korir |
The Water ministry could be setting Kenyans up for expensive loan repayments without any accruing benefits from the borrowing
Revelations by MPs point to a slow uptake in the use of the loans by the State Department of Water and Sanitation yet some of the borrowing dates back to two years
Members of the Public Debt and Privatisation Committee have raised concerns over the slow implementation of projects under the department.
The Committee chaired by Balambala MP Abdi Shurie questioned the Water and Sanitation Principal Secretary Julius Korir over the slow absorption rate of a loan that was signed in 2022.
It emerged that a EUR121.7 million (Sh17.6billion) loan absorption remains very low despite the loan between the government of Kenya and the International Development Association to finance the Horn of Africa Ground for Resilience Project being signed on September 1, 2022.
From Korir’s presentation, the MPs noted that the progress of the project, whose objective is to build resilience for communities living in the Horn of Africa borderlands from adverse effects of recurring prolonged droughts, was at 10 per cent.
They questioned why the project, which they termed simple, was taking more than three years to implement.
Korir informed the committee, that the Ministry has so far only utilised Sh398 million.
The PS, however, defended the progress, saying the procurement milestones have been achieved, and once completed, this will accelerate the project implementation status and absorption rate.
“Following the effectiveness of the project, the initial activities involving preparatory work like building capacity of implementing agencies through identification or recruitment of key social and environmental safeguards staff, preparation of security management and community engagement to ensure the selected activities resonate with the need of the people have commenced,” PS Korir said.
The Sh17.56 billion IDA loan was intended to fund the rehabilitation of 200 existing boreholes and the drilling of 200 new ones in Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Marsabit, and Turkana counties.
Shillings 398 million has been spent on initial activities, including capacity building for implementing agencies, recruitment of key social and environmental safeguards staff, setting up project implementation teams and offices, site selection, and community engagement.
Lagdera MP Abdikadir Hussein asked the PS to highlight how they were using technology to ensure that the depth of the borehole drilled provides water to the locals.
“In some cases, a borehole, even with a depth of 100 metres, dries up and fails to provide water to the locals, so how are you embracing new technology to work around this and become sure that a certain depth of borehole provides water so that the project does not fail to achieve the intended objectives?” Abdikadir asked.
Korir assured the committee that they are using technology to identify aquifers and citing locations with high potential for underground water.
The PS also apprised the committee on the status of the loan of EUR 108 million (Sh15.6billion) loan that was signed on 28th November 2022, between Kenya and Germany to finance the Lake Victoria South Waste Water Management Project.
by JACKTONE LAWI