Kenya's population outstripping water, sanitation — report

Kenya’s population is growing faster than water and sanitation services, a new report has shown.

The move complicates Kenya’s bid to attain universal water coverage and sanitation.

A Performance Report of Kenya’s Water Services Sector - 2019/20 released by the Water Services Regulatory Board (Wasreb) June 30, 2021, showed that water coverage in regulated areas declined from 59 per cent to 57 per cent.

This, the Wasreb report said is mainly due to the population growing at a faster rate (seven per cent) compared to growth in access (five per cent).

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics says Kenya's population is 47.6million with a growth rate declining to 2.2 per cent in 2019, from 2.9 per cent in 2009.

Wasreb said the absence of robust data on access and functionality of rural systems undermines the development of the rural water subsector mainly as a result of uncoordinated infrastructural investments.

“Tracking of progress towards SDGs will remain a challenge in the absence of credible data as a baseline,” Wasreb said.

During the period, there was an additional 854,514 people served compared to an increase in the number of people within the service area of the Water Service Providers of 2,229,267.

Wasreb is mandated under Water Act 2016 to report annually to the public on issues of water supply and sewerage services and the performance of the relevant sectors and publish the reports in the gazette.

The report analyses the performance of 91 regulated utilities, as well as, presenting the water services situation in rural and other underserved areas, based on data collected with the support of the Water Works Development Agencies.

Wasreb said there is a general decline in performance with only three indicators recording improvement while five declined and one stagnated.

This, the board said, is a departure from the previous reporting period where improved performance was recorded in four indicators, a drop in three and stagnation in two.

“Water coverage for areas served by regulated utilities declined from 59 per cent in 2018/19 to 57 per cent in 2019/20 mainly as a result of population growth surpassing growth in access. In absolute terms, there was an additional 854,514 people served against a population increase in the service area of 2,229.267,” the board said.

Similarly, sewer coverage declined from 17 per cent recorded in 2018/19 to 15 per cent.

“If we look at the total water coverage; considering the contribution of the Small-Scale Service Providers, the national coverage is 45 per cent with huge variances between counties. Embu County has the highest coverage at 84 per cent while Narok is the lowest at 10 per cent,” Wasreb said.

The drinking water quality declined from 96 per cent to 92 per cent with the lowest average reported among the Small water service provider category, at 70 per cent, which is way below the acceptable range.

Hours of supply increased from 14 to 15 per day.

Nyeri, Nakuru, Meru, Ruiru-Juja, Murang’a were among the best performing utilities while Homa Bay, Kwale and Gusii were the worst-performing.

The Non-Revenue Water increased from 43 per cent to 47 per cent far from the National Water Services Strategy target of less than 30 per cent and Vision 2030 goal of less than 25 per cent.

Wasreb said the Sanitation Coverage improved by seven percentage points up.

Kenya had pledged in 2015 to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

This was part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which was missed.

The MDGs have since graduated into the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that are interconnected and ambitious goals seeking to address the major development challenges faced by people.

SDG 6.1 mandates countries to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030 while SDG 6.2 calls for adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation by 2030.

The targets are however not a walk in the park for Kenya.

This is because her water resources are unevenly distributed with arid regions receiving only 250 mm or less of rain per year.

Kenya is also considered a water-scarce country, with a per capita water availability of less than 600 cubic metres, below the global threshold of 1,000 cubic metres per capita.

The country is also grappling with insufficient data on groundwater aquifer yields, recharge sources and aquifer responses to diverse climatic conditions.

UN that the current rate of drought and environmental stress placed on water could see many go without the commodity by 2050.

UN estimates that one in four people will have a scarcity of clean water access going by the current rates.

Reports show that 21 million Kenyans have no access to safe and clean water and sanitation, estimated to cost the country Sh27 billion annually.

Women have the main responsibility for managing their household’s needs for water, sanitation, and health and in a number of regions, women and girls spend many hours a day fetching water.

In the Samburu, for example, women walk more than nine kilometres daily to fetch water.

Such distances are set to increase with the increased frequency of droughts.

The time spent obtaining water is time that could otherwise be devoted to schooling, child-care, or to income-generating activities.

Access to clean water is therefore crucial in attaining most of the SDG targets.

In the financial year 2021/2022, National Treasury allocated Sh39.1 billion Water and Sewerage Infrastructure; Sh 16.4 billion for Water Resource Management and another Sh 10.8 billion for water storage and flood control.

Institute for Law and Environmental Governance (ILEG) Director Benson Ochieng said Kenya has previously given water coverage prominence leaving out sanitation.

He said the repealed water Act of 2002 had left out sanitation.

“The Water Act 2016 has not been implemented while the major provisions were declared unconstitutional by courts,” he said.

Ochieng said there are many cash trapped water companies that were making many losses.

“Water companies need a certain optimum number of customers to break even. There have been attempts to privatise some struggling companies for efficiency and viability,” he said adding that some companies have inadequate manpower.

Ochieng cited other challenges facing the sector as corruption, inequity in access to water as well as huge debts left with some of the water companies by defunct authorities as some of the other challenges facing the sector.

ILEG is an independent, non-profit public interest law and policy organization focused on promoting sustainable development.

It works with local communities, governments, the private sector and civil society organizations to ensure fair, balanced and equitable development policy choices to improve people's lives and protect the environment.

Water CS Sicily Kariuki said her ministry’s strategic objective is to increase both water and sanitation coverage to 80 per cent (37.6 million Kenyans) nationally, and sanitation from 25 per cent to 40 per cent (18.8 million people) by 2022.

The CS said the ongoing major water projects will help enhance water coverage.

Kariuki is however alarmed with Kenya’s non-revenue water that stands at 43 per cent.

Non-revenue water is water that has been produced and lost before it reaches the consumer.

Kariuki said her ministry is keen to increase per capita freshwater endowment from 527 cubic metres to 700 cubic metres through management, protection and conservation of water resources by 2022; increase water storage per capita from 4.5 cubic metres in 2017 to 14 cubic metres by the year 2022.

She said the ministry is also keen to enhance water sector financing to support programmes and projects.

Kariuki said the road map to achieving the universal provision of water and sanitation services in the country, largely defines the strategic interventions required by the country.

The CS said real-time data is critical in the journey to achieve universal water and sanitation provision by 2030.

“If we are to become competitive enough, attract investors to journey with us, we must be strategic as a country; this may well be defined by our adoption and investments to the emerging technological trends,” she said.

Kariuki said the country must have the answers on how well it can define its water, sanitation distribution networks; how the infrastructure investment network is distributed, and water utilities.