The benefits of Karimenu II Dam

The building activities of Karimenu II Dambegun in May 2019 are anticipated to be finished

by May 2022. The project implementing agency is the Athi Water Works Development

Agency (AWWDA)

Construction of Sh24 billion Karimenu 2 Dam is well advanced in Gatundu North, Kiambu

County, with the Chinese construction company now rushing to finish operations on the site

by May.

Thika locals have protested multiple times about unresolved compensation for the Karimenu

2 Dam, which is now under construction 50 kilometres west of town.

In August 2020, irate residents who were still to get compensation for their ancestral land

ejected the contractor and threatened to invest in a property until they were reimbursed.

The angry residents who were impacted by phase two of something like the project claimed

the builder of intruding on their land and started excavation activities without their

authorization.

In phase one of the project, villagers organised protests that culminated in the expulsion of

the contracting company from the site — derailing a project that is planned to enhance water

supplies in the Thika, Juja, Ruiru, and sections of Nairobi.

The issues have since been rectified.

The Karimenu II Dam, which is now being built on a 600-acre tract of land, is jointly

sponsored by the Government of Kenya and the China Exim Bank.

The project is being undertaken through a strategic alliance between International Holding

Corporation and the Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute.

A three-year timeline agreed upon by all parties in May 2017 called for completion of the

26,540,000 cubic metre dams by December 2020.

More than 60 kilometres of water pipelines are being laid as part of the Karimenu 2 Dam

project, and at Ruiru and Juja, respectively, reinforced concrete tanks with a combined

volume of 23,500 cubic metres and 3,000 cubic metres are being built.

Upon completion, the 59-meter-tall Karimenu 2 Dam would provide irrigation and household

users with an estimated 70 million litres of water per day.

The present availability to clean water in Kenya has now been estimated at around 90 percent

in urban areas and roughly 45 percent in rural regions, while the national average remains at

about 60 percent.

At the same time, availability for safe sanitation is at a national average of 80 percent (with

an estimated 95 percent in the urban regions and roughly 77 percent in the rural) (with an

estimated 95 percent in the urban areas and about 77 percent in the rural).

This condition portrays Kenya as a "chronic water-scarce" country generated by the restricted

endowment of water with anything less than 650m3 per inhabitant per year.

This is anticipated to further fall to under 245m3 per capita per year by the year 2025,

considerably below the globally suggested minimum of 1,000m³ per capita/year unless

serious efforts are taken. Catchment destruction, pollutant discharge, over-abstraction, and

wastage are only a few of the problems affecting the country's water resources.

Kenya's Water resources are also very subject to climatic fluctuation, often resulting in

circumstances of floods and periods of drought in equal quantities. The country's insufficient

storage capacity hinders the nation's ability to buffer against such shocks as water scarcity.

Benefits of This Project to The Community

The capacity of groundwater sources in the Aberdare slopes has been steadily decreasing

with time attributed to a combination of factors, including catchment diminishment from the

competitors in the market of land use necessities and reduced rainfall to charge up the

publications, as well as improving environmental demand for domestic, advertisement, and

also storage of rainwater for the urban and rural users.

This condition is overstretching the available water for home supply in metropolitan areas,

notably to the City of Nairobi, and is now being felt in Ruiru, Juja, and Thika Towns. The

resources require gradual augmentation to fulfill the existing and future irrigation

requirements.

The growing population and increased social and economic activity in Nairobi's environs,

which share water supplies from Aberdare's watershed, have exacerbated water shortages in

these communities.

Water sources feeding the City (Sasumua dam, Thika dam, Ruiru dam, and Kikuyu Springs),

all outside the Nairobi region, are increasingly under strain to serve the city demands as well

as the local requirements, including the outlying towns of Ruiru, Juja, and Thika.

Transmission losses, inappropriate abstraction along transmission pipes, pressure losses,

illegal connections, and other unaccounted for water all contribute to a lack of production

capacity.

Athi Water Services Board has suggested building more dams to supply Juja and Ruiru

towns, which are currently receiving insufficient water from the Ndarugu and Ruiru Rivers,

in order to correct this problem.

Athi Water Services Board and Water Service Providers will be able to generate more cash

by supplying the villages along the pipeline's route with the extra water. Kariminu II Dam

was among those recommended in the Water Master Plan for Establishing New Sources Of
water for Ruiru and Juja Towns that also encompassed the study of water demands and

infrastructure development.