Residents of Mombasa, Kwale and Taita Taveta counties have stayed without water for the last eight days after the Coast Water Service Board (CWSB) disconnected supply.
The board said that the disconnection was due to arrears by the counties amounting to Sh1.3 Billion since July 1, 2013.
“We will not connect untreated water and we do not want to be responsible for spread of waterborne diseases. We need money to buy chemicals,” said CWSB board member Gharib Suleiman Gharib.
However, Mombasa and Kwale County Governments Friday accused CWSB of misrepresenting the debt and violating regulations set by the Transition Authority on settling debts between county governments and the water board.
“Kwale Water and Sewerage Company (KAWASCO), which the County Government has restructured, has been paying electricity bills promptly and servicing water pumps since 2013. CWSB, which is supposed to have done this, failed to do so, besides a keen scrutiny of invoices from CWSB revealed that costs incurred by KAWASCO were not deducted from the CWSB bills,” Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya was quoted by the Standard.
Despite the strong sentiments by the Governor, CWSB maintained that water will be reconnected on condition that the counties settled at least their December bills.
“We are not demanding arrears accrued by the defunct municipalities and we have also told them that if they pay the December bill and come up with a formula on how they will clear the arrears accrued since the county administration came to power, we will connect,” CWSB acting CEO Joseph Omwange asserted.
