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Water company asks government to make law compelling people to fix rain water harvesters to their buildings

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention. A severe drought coupled with water shortage that hit certain parts of Kenya recently has compelled some nationals to rack their brains to figure out a solution.

Water company asks government to make law compelling people to fix rain water harvesters to their buildings

 Reports say between December 2018 and April 2019, the east African country experienced a drought that resulted in the death of some animals and people.

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Interestingly, as the rains have set in now, some areas of the country have been experiencing devastating flooding, and some people are of the view that the rainy season could be taken advantage of to guard against water shortage in the future.

A water and energy solutions company based in Kenya, Davis and Shirtliff has called on the Kenyan government to enact a law that will make it compulsory for buildings including houses, apartments, offices, schools and industries to have rain water harvesters fitted to them.

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According to a statement released by the company’s CEO David Gatende on Monday, May 6, failure to harvest rain water or making a policy towards it could hinder the country’s achievement of vision 2030.

“By 2030, Kenya’s population will be approximately 68 million and there is already pressure being experienced with regards to access to safe water. Having rainwater harvesting systems as part of building and construction codes is a sustainable approach that Kenya could adopt.

“People respond to legislation and it is the government’s responsibility to nudge people in the right direction. In 2012, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) enacted regulations requiring premises with hot water demand exceeding 100 litres per day install solar water heating systems to cater for at least 60% of the demand. This forced a lot of people to think about it and a lot of installations were done as a result. If the government pushes for the adoption of water harvesting structures in the designs of buildings the reception should be the same,” Tuko.co.ke quoted Davis and Shirtliff CEO, David Gatende as saying.

Meanwhile, most Kenyans seem to be in support of Davis and Shirtliff’s call for rain water harvesting. Some of them resorted to twitter to declare their support.

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