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WATER SUPPLY PLANNING

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The history of ancient civilization reveals that the earliest man lived in close proximity to water sources (UNEP and UNESCO, 1996)1 as evidenced by human settlements such as those found along the Great Lakes of East and Central Africa, rivers such as Euphrates and Tigris in ancient Mesopotamia, Nile in North Africa, and Indus in India (CEPT, 1996)2 among many others. This is corroborated by the importance the Greek Philosopher Pindar (5th Century, BC) attached on water, who once said, “Water is the best of all things”. The importance of water in earlier civilization was also clearly portrayed by another Greek Philosopher named Empedocles of Agricentrum (490 - 430 BC), that water is one of the four primary elements, namely, water, fire, air and earth, for which water is the pillar of all things (Njoroge, 1999)3. In contemporary times, famous cities such as New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, have their origin traced near major water sources (GOI, 2003)4, where they evolved and sustained over the years as a result of continued availability of this means of survival; water. The origin of Nairobi, which began at the banks of the Nairobi River, also follows this view, since the theory of origin of cities holds the fact that their inhabitants lived, drew and thrived from water sources, as streams, rivers, and lakes, close to their settlements, which was then available in relative abundance and purity contrary to the present situation. UNCHS-Habitat (1999), (2001) and (2002) observed that, urbanization in developing countries has put enormous pressure on the natural resources, especially water. Depletion, wastage and pollution of water resources are threatening the sustainability of economic and social development. Water and scarcity is also rapidly becoming a source of social conflict in many parts of the world. More than half of the population living in developing cities in India and Africa today are denied access to municipal supplies and the poor are forced to pay to street vendors for a litre of water as much as five to twenty times of what their affluent counterparts pay for municipal supplies. Urban poor struggle for water, as more than half of the water produced at high cost to meet the needs of the burgeoning cities is lost even before it reaches the consumers. There is also little control of wasteful and profligate use by the affluent classes in these cities, while the major water users such as industries seldom practices water recycling or water reuse. The urban water crisis, in the final analysis, is therefore a crisis of governance rather than a crisis of scarcity. Abwao (1999)22, Dzikus (1999), Makuro (2000)23 and Cesare et al. (2003)24 have also