A water shortage at Lamu’s King Fahad County Referral Hospital renal unit has disrupted dialysis services for kidney patients.
According to the Nation Africa report, 12 patients were asked last week to seek medication in Mombasa and other areas outside Lamu as the water problem was addressed.
Health Executive, Anne Gathoni admitted that there was a problem with water supply to the renal unit at the hospital.
Ms Gathoni said that with the ongoing drought, the water is too saline, affecting the functioning of the dialysis machines.
One of the dialysis machines broke down during a treatment session last week, according to the official, who stated that a renal unit requires an appropriate and regular supply of high-quality water to function properly.
Since most of the water used on the island is salty, the Lamu County government built up a mini-desalination plant that has been converting saline water into clean water for use by the renal institution for years.
However, the plant has been malfunctioning for several months.
“We have some hitch with the water plant that serves the dialysis unit, but the issue is being addressed,” Ms Gathoni said.
Patients were still being attended to despite the water hitch, she said.
A water crisis hit Ndau Island in Lamu East constituency for over a month now following a breakdown of the desalination plant that was installed late last year, forcing residents to resort to using untreated salty water from boreholes.
This comes in the wake of the Lamu Water Supply Company spending Ksh.264 million in last year’s financial year’s County budget to improve fresh water access across the county.
The current administration county government has assured that in the wake of the hyped ‘mai mekoni’ initiative, it would resolve the persistent water crisis especially in Lamu east.
Residents interviewed however stated that alternative sources of water from the boreholes was unsafe for human use.
“We have resorted to getting fresh water from Kiunga which also has its own set of water scarcity problems with the breakdown of the Kiunga desalination plant as well,” Athman Mohammed, a Ndau resident said.
He further stated that relatives from Kiunga are the ones who fetch fresh water from the Northern Rangeland Trust (NRT) water kiosk, with jericans that are then ferried to their Ndau relatives.
