With the short rains approaching, our teams are shifting part of this month's clean-up effort toward drainage points and culverts rather than open ground. Most flooding we see in Kasarani during heavy rain traces back to a blocked drain, and most blocked drains trace back to dumped waste that never reached a proper collection point.
Why waste and flooding are the same problem in disguise
It's tempting to think of seasonal flooding as purely a rainfall or infrastructure issue, separate from waste management. In practice, in much of Kasarani, the two are tightly linked: drainage channels and culverts, when clear, can handle a significant volume of rainfall without backing up into surrounding compounds. The same channels, choked with plastic bags, sachets and general dumped waste, back up quickly even under moderate rain, sending water into homes and roads that a functioning drain would have carried away without incident.
What our pre-rains preparation actually involves
Over the coming weeks, our Saturday clean-ups are prioritising known blockage points along Mwiki and Zimmerman drainage channels specifically, rather than following our usual rotating village schedule, since these are the areas where past flooding has most clearly traced back to blocked, waste-choked drains. We're working alongside community health volunteers who know the specific hotspots best, since they're often the first to hear about flooding problems after the fact and have a clearer, ground-level picture than a general survey would provide.
Why this can't wait until the rains actually start
Clearing a blocked drain during heavy rain is far harder, and considerably more hazardous for volunteers and collectors, than clearing the same blockage in dry conditions beforehand. Waste that's had weeks or months to accumulate and compact in a drain doesn't clear easily once water is already flowing through it, and working in an active flood risk area carries obvious safety concerns that preventative, dry-season clearing avoids entirely. Preparation, in other words, is not just more effective than reactive clean-up — it's meaningfully safer.
What households can do beyond collection day
The single most useful thing a household can do to support drainage preparedness is straightforward: use the scheduled general collection day rather than the nearest drain when a bin is full, even when that means waiting a day or two for the next collection. It's a habit worth reinforcing specifically ahead of the rainy season, since the practical cost of dumping into a drain — a blocked channel, standing water, flooding into nearby compounds — becomes far more visible and immediate once heavy rain actually arrives.
How to report a drainage risk
If you know of a drain or culvert near you that floods every rainy season, or that you've noticed accumulating waste over recent weeks, letting us know through our contact page is usually how we find these blockages before the rain does, rather than after flooding has already caused damage. Reports from residents living closest to a given drain are consistently more accurate and timely than what our own periodic surveys alone would catch.
What happens after a blockage is cleared
Clearing a drain isn't a permanent fix on its own if the same dumping pattern continues afterward. Wherever we identify a recurring blockage point, we treat it as a signal to look at whether nearby households have reliable, close-enough collection access — the same logic that shaped our response to riverbank dumping in Mwiki. A cleared drain that refills within weeks usually means the underlying access gap hasn't actually been addressed yet.
How this year's preparation compares to previous seasons
This is not the first time we've run pre-rains drainage work, but it's the first time we've deliberately shifted our regular clean-up rotation to prioritise it over our usual village-by-village schedule. In previous seasons, drainage clearing happened as part of the ordinary rotation, reaching each area roughly once a month regardless of season. This year's more concentrated approach, focused specifically on Mwiki and Zimmerman ahead of the rains, reflects a lesson from past flooding: general rotation alone doesn't guarantee the highest-risk points get cleared with enough lead time before the rains actually arrive.
What residents in unaffected areas can still do
Even outside Mwiki and Zimmerman, every household on our route has a role to play in reducing flood risk more broadly. Keeping general waste for scheduled collection rather than any nearby open drain, wherever you live, reduces the raw material that ends up blocking channels downstream from your own street. Flooding in Kasarani, like most peri-urban drainage systems, doesn't respect village boundaries — a blockage that starts upstream can contribute to flooding well beyond where the waste was originally dumped.
What happens if flooding occurs despite preparation
Even thorough pre-rains preparation can't eliminate flooding risk entirely, particularly during unusually heavy rain events. Where flooding does occur despite clearing efforts, our response shifts to rapid post-event clean-up, prioritising affected drainage points immediately rather than waiting for the next scheduled rotation, since a flooded drain that isn't quickly re-cleared risks repeat flooding with the next rainfall.
What we'll be watching once the rains actually arrive
Beyond the preparation itself, we're tracking whether this season's more concentrated pre-rains effort in Mwiki and Zimmerman actually reduces flooding incidents compared to previous seasons, which will tell us whether this more targeted approach is worth repeating as standard practice or whether our previous, more evenly distributed rotation served the same purpose just as well.
Frequently asked questions
Which areas are prioritised for pre-rains drainage clearing?
Currently Mwiki and Zimmerman, based on known blockage points and past flooding history identified with community health volunteers.
How can I report a blocked or at-risk drain near me?
Contact us with a location description; resident reports are one of our most reliable ways of identifying blockages before the rains.
What's the single best thing I can do to help prevent flooding?
Use your scheduled collection day rather than a nearby drain or open space for waste disposal, even when it means holding a full bin an extra day or two.
If your area has a known flooding history tied to blocked drainage, let us know so we can factor it into this season's clean-up priorities.