By Alphayo Otieno
Tension and discontent is high within the Lake Victoria South Water Services Board (LVSWSB) over what stakeholders describe as “high level graft” among the top management.
And it is now feared that that unless the contentious issues at the board that covers an area of 23000 Km2 comprising 18 administrative districts in Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces are resolved, residents of this vast region may wait longer before they realize adequate water supply.
Investigations have reveled that a number of stakeholders of the board are faulting the chief executive Eng Michael Ochieng for failing to build a broad-based coalition partners to form a strong voice against corruption.
“Partnership and coalition building at global, regional as well as country levels are needed to scale up action and achieve impact in terms of reducing corruption in the water sector through entrenched integrity, transparency and accountability,” said an official with the GTZ.
“People in the region covered by this board have little voice in water issues affecting them,” Dr. Hakan Tropp of the Stockholm International Water Institute.
Speaking at a Kisumu hotel, the official said it was necessary that the board embarks on a drive to empower citizens to take part in the fight against graft by establishing public accounting forums to keep the board accountable.
“Corruption in the water sector is widespread and makes water undrinkable, inaccessible and unaffordable,” he says. “It is evident in the drilling of rural wells in sub-Saharan Africa, in the construction of water treatment facilities in Asia’s urban areas, the building of hydroelectric dams in Latin America and the daily abuse and misuse of water resources around the world.”
The official warned the board risks losing public funds as a result of in transparent privatization processes of the profit generating arms of water management companies.
The official said it was high time the board took action against cartels that are currently controlling water supply in slum areas as a result of inadequate supply.
He said the graft that has taken root in the sector, threatens the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals which among others, aim to half the proportion of people without sustainable access to water and sanitation by 2015.
“Reforming procurement procedures; reducing complexity in regulation, licensing and control; engaging multiple stakeholders for example private sector and civil society in all the key processes and decentralizing water and sanitation processes are some of the key steps we should take to further reform the sector.”, he said.
5 users commented in " Lake Victoria South water board not pleasing stakeholders? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackAlphayo you are bogus in your writing. Since you came back from US where you were washing dishes you have continued to portray the image of Kisumu and its leaders in bad light. What is your problem? Did you really walk into a journalism college.
Which leaders are you yelling about here? do you have the capacity to read or you are the likes of empty heads who have never ever seen the four walls of a class room? who tells you people wash dishes in the US the way you use in Kenya? My friend there people have dish washing machines installed in each habitable house. Do not live on here say that you gather from street corners while shining your cheap footwear Omera. What Alphayo has said here is true or unless you are a part of such graft!!! Anyway it’s commemdable that you read even if you may not have the interpretation capacity.
We should allow different opinions, but an insult is not the way forward. If at all there is graft in this institution, the same should be pointed out and things fixed up. The management should be thinking of better ways of providing services to satisfy consumer demands. As a matter of fact, Those around the lake region should not be lacking clean and affordable water.
Let’s stop name calling and put our heads together for better gains and development through making good use of our God-given natural resources. If things are wrong, its only fair and right that we point it out. If we care about each other, we should honest with each other. Covering up and taking things personally doesn’t solve anything.
YOU KNOW WHAT ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS.IF WE ARE TO COUNT THE NUMBER OF BOREHOLES THAT HAVE COME UP IN KISII,BONDO AND KISUMU AND WATER STATIONS THAT ARE SELLING CHEAP WATER SAFE FOR DRINKING,ITS A REMARKABLE IMPROVEMENT.SO BEFORE WE COMMENT ANYTHING HERE WE SHOULD BE SURE OF WHATS HAPPENING.SO ALPHAYO BE SURE OF WHAT YOU SAYING.
LINDA OMONDI
These are people who offers unwanted advice to the person in charge, while having no responsibility himself for the way a task is performed.
Linda has proved the falsity of an argument.
Mary Aloo
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