Water and Sewerage firm David & Shirtliff has reported an uptake in the installation of residential recycling plants. According to the firm, Nairobi's population, growing at 5% a year and expected to hit the six million mark by 2030 generates great challenges in waste management for city dwellers. The company has been supplying Dayliff waste water treatment and recycling plants, in the country and has reportedly sold over 30 units within Nairobi city alone.

“Waste management poses a great challenge for the city as the increase in solid waste generation has not been accompanied by an equivalent increase in the capacity of the urban authorities to deal with the problem. Adoption of such alternatives as domestic water recycling will be great relief to strained sewer lines” said Mr. David Gatende, Deputy CEO Davis and Shirtliff Group.

Currently, residential waste accounts for 70% of the waste generated in the city, according to UNEP.

Efficient and Cost effective

“Using a recycling plant is environmental friendly and reduces dependency on failing urban authority sewer lines,” said authorities from the Swedish Embassy, the latest institution to install the treatment and recycling plant, which has reduced its water needs to 2,000  litres from 5,000  litres daily.

The Swedish embassy confirms that only half of its water requirements now come from the city council, for drinking and washing; while the recycling system caters for the 50% of water required in toilet flushing and the irrigation of flower beds.

Joy Busolo, Water Manager at Davis and Shirtliff said the Dayliff system breaks down waste from toilets, showers, kitchen, and hand basins to a quality that can be recycled or otherwise sent down the storm water drain or back to the environment.

Currently, Nairobi has a sewer network of some 163 km which covers just 25% of the 700 km² area of the city. There are 178,099 connections to the existing network, which serves some 40% of the city's population.

Strained sewer system

However, according to figures from Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company, the effluent in the sewer outlets has increased 30% in the last decade to more than 140, 000 cubic meters from 110,000 cubic meters a day.

At the same time, informal settlements, which constitute 40% to 60% of the population in the city, suffer poor water and sanitation service provision. Ms Busolo says Water recycling and treatment systems are the best alternative to failed sewer lines within residential and working areas.