Residents of Mombasa Island were on Wednesday forced to celebrate the Christmas holiday on dry taps, following the breakdown of the only pipe supplying the region with water.
The water connection was cut after vandals descended on the pipe at the Nyali Bridge on Monday, with the ongoing efforts to repair the same resulting in dry taps in homes.
Mombasa Water Supply and Sanitation Company Managing Director Anthony Njaramba said that the ongoing repairs are expected to be complete by Thursday.
He said that the thieves made away with valves and stoppers, forcing the company to reroute water to Nyali and Kisauni to prevent water wastage as they fix new ones.
"At the moment repair work is going on to correct the anomaly before water supply to the island resumes. We expect normal supplies by Thursday or Friday," he was quoted on Wednesday.
Most affected areas include Ganjoni, Majengo, Tudor and Makande in Mvita constituency.
However, Njaramba remained silent on how the company expects residents to survive should the repairs take longer than expected.
As a result of the dry taps, water vendors were making a kill on Wednesday, after stepping in to fill the gap. A jerrican went for Sh50, Sh30 up from the normal Sh20 per jerrican.