Nyayo stadium flooding explained

A lot of questions have been raised over the quality of the drainage system at the Nyayo stadium. The stadium has in the last two months witnessed cancellation of key matches due to over flooding of the pitch with one of the matches being an international All African games qualifier pitting Kenya and Uganda (U-23) in June.

On Wednesday, the Mathare United vs. Tusker KPL match that was being aired live by SuperSport was also cancelled in less than ten minutes of play after the stadium flooded following heavy rains that hit the City on Wednesday evening.

Michezoafrika.com sought to find out the reasons for the flooding came out with some findings.

The Nyayo stadium playing surface on a normal day is supposed to drain within a maximum of 25 minutes no matter how heavy the rains are.

However, this has not been the case because of failed drainage systems outside the stadium.

According to the stadium officials, The drainage out of the stadium between the road (aerodrome road) and the VIP car park is blocked thus forces an over flow into the car park area of the stadium and thus into the stadium through the gate overflow. With such, it compound the existing drainage which forces water from outside into the stadium.

The Facility Highlight:

Drainage for the stadium.
There exists a standard size natural grass playing surface surrounded by a 30,000 seated terrace. The pitch dimensions are From North to South i.e. the playing area, between the two goals is 100.5m. Behind the south goal where the flag post that was removed lies is 8.35m.of turf. To the North the back play area is more than 20m.

The pitch area and the standard track area surrounding the pitch is served by two (2) drainage kerbs one on the outer most perimeter of the track, to prevent overflow from water from outside the stadiums through the sloping gates.

 

The second drainage serves the track and the playing area hence deals with overflow from both the track which is banked so as never to hold water and the pitch which has a bi sloping gradient towards all touchlines. Thus in the event of rain of any magnitude the pitch at Nyayo National stadium takes between 7 to 26 minutes to drain from the moment the rain stops.

The drainage has been linked to the swimming pool exit so it means it is controlled and efficient.

To solve the stadium flooding, City Council needs to open up the blocked drainage along Aerodrome road.