How water cartels fleece Tseikuru residents

The price of a 20-litre jerrycan of water in Tseikuru town is Sh20. This is replicated in neighbouring markets. It is 90km from Mwingi town.

Customers make orders and water is delayed on matters delivery. Those with their own donkeys can fetch water at Sh5. This is paid for at the wells that sell the essential product. Meaning, for transportation and delivery, the water vendor makes a profit of Sh15.

Usually, the vendor has a cart which is filled with other jerricans meaning they will have bigger profit margin in the expanded economies of scale.

Most vendors have hired carts or buy their own for easy transportation. Customers have to wait for delivery since in some places, there are long queues. The queues cause competition jamming the facility as livestock and humans struggle to obtain water.

Not all water sold is fresh. Most is hard meaning is saline. As a result, it causes cooking sufurias to have an accumulation of a white substance at the bottom.

Hard water makes washing clothes tough to do given it doesn’t lather easily with bar soap. More of it must be used in rinsing the clothes.

Comb

Even in showering, hard water is not friendly. When applied on the hair and skin, it leaves behind whitish matter which is hard to comb.

In other areas, some hard water makes urinating a harsh experience. This is locally called kutemwa ni maumoo. Meaning the water “cuts” the user as s/he urinates.

There has been a worrying trend of cattle theft too. The wells are used at reconnaissance locations where the livestock are observed by thieves and traced to their eventual feeding fields. Several cases of goat stealing have left residents with sad faces.

Most of stolen goats are never recovered. Mwingi Times has heard stories where the goats are recovered at the selling markets ready for transportation or are never traceable.

All these water woes stem from inadequate water supply in Tseikuru, one of the 40 wards of Kitui County.

Story by MUSYOKA NGUI