An incomplete sewer line drains effluent towards Kahawa West phase two quarry area.
Residents of Kahawa West phase two quarry will endure a putrid-smelling Christmas, thanks to careless landlords in the upper side who are channelling effluent from their plots to the area.
The affected residents have been living with the stench of raw sewage for months, which has exposed them to health hazards.
“Some landlords do not want to take full responsibility. Instead of installing septic tanks and calling for exhauster services, they are draining the waste through people’s homes. The smell is unbearable in the morning and evening when the waste is drained,” said a resident who requested anonymity.
The residents say sewer lines from the upper side terminate in the area, and their current situation has persisted for over a year.
They said some landlords had not installed septic tanks and are draining raw sewage downwards.
“Some of my neighbours cannot drink or cook with the water that is coming from the taps because it smells like sewage,” she said.
For the two years that Evelyn Njeri, 28, has lived at quarry, she has lived in this condition.
Right outside her house is a shallow trench that takes filthy waste downslope to a swampy area just behind her house. The trench has undergrowth on its walls.
Njeri, a mother of two, says that unlike her neighbour who was able to buy a sewer to channel the filth beneath her premises, she is not in a position to do the same.
“A month ago, my four-year-old daughter touched the water in the trench. I found her playing with it and she developed some skin condition but she is better now,” she told The Standard.
The story of Lydia Wambui, a 30-year-old mother, is not any different. She told The Standard her youngest child developed respiratory problems due to the stench from the waste that flows outside her house every day.
