Voi residents were today morning stranded unable to leave Voi town or access Voi town from the Mombasa – Nairobi Highway. When traveling from Nairobi to Mombasa, one accesses Voi town by taking a left after the petrol stations at the highway. 100 meters after taking the left, water was crossing the road with force. The water had forced a track off the road.
When traveling from Mombasa to Nairobi one enters Voi town by taking a right. About 200 meters from the junction, water flooded across the road making it impassable. The water stopped persons who live in Kaloleni, Birikani and other parts from access to Voi. Similarly those looking to go to Mombasa Road or other parts of Voi were stopped by the water.
Joseph Mwandairo of DUT Roads and other DUT persons who got stranded took the opportunity to educate themselves on this problem caused by heavy rains. One of the reasons that the water was passing above the road was because the underpass culverts had become congested with debri. The lesson was that maintenance of stormwater infrastructure should be well planned and maintained.
The other crucial education was on safety and dangers of challenging excessive water flow. Seeing a track pushed to the side was testament on the strength of water. A boda boda rider when carrying a passage was almost swept away by the water. He was saved by others who risked their lives to save him. The lesson here was on putting safety measures that would close a road should such a problem arise.
For close to two hours, persons and vehicles looking to enter Voi and persons looking to exit Voi stood on both sides watching the water cross the road.
The DUT team looking at the water resource, freely given by God, said they will add dams to their project that can store the water. Seeing millions of liters flow to the Voi River to be transported to the Ocean because there is no water harvesting system fueled the discussion of dams and water collection tanks.
