Background
The Nairobi River is a river found in Kenya. Wandering from north to south, the river serves as a natural boundary between the rich west that includes the city centre and Eastlands where the larger population comprising the majority poor lives.
The Maasai tribes people whom they found grazing their animals in the plains called the place, enkarre nyrobi (cold water) because of the cool waters that the main river and its maze of tributaries carried. Unable to say the word enkarre, the white man decided that it should be named Nairobi as the name of their new settlement.
Drivers of pollution and types of pollutants
As the population grew with the availability of jobs and industries also grew, the river and its tributaries including…show more content… Raw sewage from informal settlements and harmful waste substances from industries are main polluters of Nairobi River. Other sources of pollution include burst/blocked sewers and solid waste thrown into the river and large amount of heavy metals. These are a threat to humans that use the water for domestic and agricultural purposes. They lead to increased COD leading to oxygenless conditions in water and settlings. The source that produces the largest amount of waste are the slaughterhouses in Dagoretti. These butcheries which process and supply beef and goat meat to Nairobi market they have been dumping their waste blood and stomach substances into the River. According to a study done by the University of Nairobi “the slaughterhouses are responsible for coliforms – a group of bacteria usually an indicator of potential contamination in water and is a health hazard - several hundreds over the recommended level by the National Environmental Management…show more content… Surrounded by Kariobangi and the Korogocho slum areas, the people living in that area pollute the area with domestic wastes like the well known “flying toilets.”
In addition to that, lorries and buses busily exchange ways in bringing junk and rubbish all over the day from industries and medical institutions.
An article indicated that “in the piles of rubbish are syringes, surgical blades and bloodied swabs from hospitals classified under the Basel Convention as hazardous waste because they can spread pathogens and harmful microorganisms. And when they burn it, It causes bacteria pollutants into the air.”
In Majengo for instance, there is the Gikomba market which is a second-hand clothes market. The traders don’t have a clean toilet to use; there are a number of toilets run by some traders and one has to pay KSh5 in order to use them. However, for a person living under the KSh70 day limit, it is hard to pay off a precious five Shillings for using a toilet. The only option left is to use the river down the street as a lavatory.
All these are reasons as to why Nairobi river is/was the way it