Real Estate continues to be a fast-growing industry in counties across Kenya. Each day, apartments, gated communities, retirement homes sprout with the aim of providing housing. Either through loans or other financial plans, most Kenyans today are putting their money in real estate as new homeowners, multiple homeowners, and even commercial estate owners.

To satisfy high demand, this has motivated innovation by developers who are securing vast pieces of land to establish housing. Most developers however are fast to fill the once green environment with concrete jungles, without complementing the environment in any way. Heritage Villas is one of these fast-growing gated communities located in Ngong, Kajiado County. The property developed by vineyard properties stands out not only for the unique housing but for the eco-friendly mode of development.

Sewer Treatment Plant

The property sitting on a 6.5-acre land has in it a sewer treatment plant that recycles water from the houses to be used for sanitation purposes. The mode of recycling assembles waste from the kitchen and sanitation areas to a manhole chamber where the untreatable waste is screened out. The treatable waste then goes through three aeration chambers where oxygen is introduced through diffuses from blowers run by solar energy.

The water is then deposited to the secondary clarifier where the waste settles down and is returned back to the aeration chambers with microorganisms that break down the waste and it is reactivated through the same process. This water is put through the chlorination process where it is treated into a usable state.

Anderson Wafula, Heritage Villas Project Manager tells me the benefits of recycling waste within the estate are felt by both the developer and property owners who both save on the service charge since this water is pumped to the house gardens and is usable for household chores such as washing. The common garden and landscape are also watered using the same water, therefore, saving on monthly water bills.

Vineyard properties limited, developers of Heritage villas overlooking the Ngong hills have eliminated the need to hire exhauster tanks by treating their own waste. At the same time, sewer line leakage and overflow are unlikely thanks to the eco-friendly plant.

As CSR, the estate has also planted trees along the road leading to the gated community which Mr. Wafula says is the least they could do to replace trees cut down during construction. “It is a house owner’s delight to buy property into a responsible developer who is looking out for the environment and neighboring households. It wouldn’t feel okay driving out of a posh estate that is releasing its sewer waste into the roads and land around. I, therefore, urge fellow developers to have the environment in mind at the planning stage.” Says Wafula