Malindi business community clean up the drainage that had blocked within the central business district. They want the county government to speed up the drainage upgrading project.Plastic wastes collected by the Bohra community in Malindi at their mosque during the holy month of Ramadhan
Aliasgar Kassamjee the former chairman of Malindi municipality walks past one of the old drainage systems in the resort town.
Malindi town is undoubtedly one of the most known resort towns in the country and abroad. Known for its prime beaches and tourists hotels that dots is coastline, the town which is commonly referred to as ‘Small Milan’ because of the high presence of Italian tourists is facing another big challenge; Flooding and drainage challenges.
The Malindi business community now wants the county government to speed up the multi-million drainage system project to prevent flooding in the town.
During the rainy seasons, the flooding becomes an eye-sore in town, which is famous with Italian’s tourists.
Many business premises in the Central business community are normally flooded forcing owners to come up with alternative means that will enable clients to access their businesses.
Reports indicate that the Malindi Municipality had received funding to a tune of Sh84 million which was funded by the World BankWB) through the Kenya urban support program but is yet to be implemented two years down the line.
Immediate former Malindi municipality board Chairman Aliasgar Kassamjee said the funds were allocated for the project in the financial year 2019-2020 but there were delays due to the pandemic.
Speaking during the Malindi clean up exercise organized by the Progressive Welfare Association of Malindi (PWAM) Mr Kassamjee said public participation was done and funds were available for the implementation process but wondered why the project was not implemented ever since.
“One of the issues that are coming up repeatedly is the issue of drainage some of these things were brought up in previous public participation and a lot of money has already been allocated for upgrading the drainage of Malindi,” he said.
He called on the authorities to speed up the process as the funds and all plans for the upgrade is there.
The former chairman who is also one of the prominent businessmen in Malindi said currently there are many illegal drainage connections in the resort town which have negative effects during the rainy season.
“The drainage is choked, there are so many mosquitos breeding, already there is an outbreak of dengue fever in Mombasa and we do not want a similar situation arising in Malindi,’’ he said.
He said so far everything is there and it’s only that work has to start for the drainage project to be done and completed.
The businessman said there was some kind of laxity on the side of the authorities which has contributed to the delay in implementation.
Ismail Muhsin a businessman in Malindi said during the clean-up they found a lot of waste in the drainage system when they were cleaning.
“Right now, mosquitos are breeding and they can cause malaria, corona, and dengue fever which can be a threat to the health,” he said.
According to Mr Mustafa Hussein from the Bohra Mosque in Malindi, they came up with a program to collect plastics during the recent Holy month of Ramadhan and the exercise was successful.
“Normally, we give free Iftar for faithful coming to the mosque and have been campaigning for everyone to bring all the waste at the mosque which now acts as a collection center,” he told journalists in Malindi.
Mr Hussein said the move is important for environmental conservation as the plastics could end up being dumped anywhere in the town.
