A section of Thika town centre flooded by rainwater following a heavy downpour on Saturday night. [Photo|Facebook.com]The heavy Saturday night downpour has left most of the drainage channels in many parts of Thika clogged leading to overflowing of rainwater with fears that it is mixed-up with raw sewage.The most affected estates include Makongeni, Kiganjo, Kisii and some parts of Thika town centre which residents largely attribute to the absence of regular cleaning of ditches."Some of these water tunnels have accumulated silt heavily as residents dump huge amounts of solid waste into them. A large amount of plastic, food leftovers and waste from shops and eateries end up in these tunnels," Michael Karanja, a Thika businessman said on Sunday.Another resident Elizabeth Mwaniki who has been a resident of Makongeni estate for over 17 years said that the whole drainage system in the estate is strained since it was designed when Makongeni had population."Today there is a lot of water coming from the many roads and many buildings coming up in this town and its environs. A number of roads and pathways have been rendered impassable as we talk," she said.Estates lying in low areas of the town like Kiganjo have seen water entering many houses with some sections rendered inaccessible exposing years of systemic neglect and pathetic drainagesystem."We have new county leadership now and we hope they will address the drainage problem and infrastructure unlike previously where we have had to live with poor services," Daniel Kimani, a butcher based in Kiganjo.

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