Nairobi River

In the early days of railway construction, Nairobi river was a tented camp for the Kenya-Uganda railway workers. It had cool and clean water that would then be considered safe for drinking. Back then an ecosystem thrived on this river since it was a source of life.

Narobi river and settlement around it.

Today the story is different as the ecosystem has been altered by human settlement in the city over a century long. Considering all the informal settlement there is in Nairobi, and the industrial discharge it is not a surprise when someone mistakes this river for a sewage system.

When the late John Michuki was the minister for Environment, he had proposed that all people living in the riparian area be relocated, he said that this the only way to reclaim the city river.
Apart from industrial and domestic waste that is discharged into the river, other affluent comes from agricultural activities and car wash runoff water.

Discharge from other places into the river

The boreholes within the Nairobi river basin are also in danger of contamination. Some harmful elements in the rivers will eventually seep through the layers of soil into the ground water system.