The Ministry of Water is introducing what it terms as drastic measures that will see billions of money lost yearly on non-revenue water saved.
According to the ministry, water service providers at the counties are losing up to Sh10.6 billion yearly representing 42 per cent.
This, it says, is through corruption, poor governance and nonpayment of water bills.
In a three-year action plan developed to address this, Principal secretary Dr Paul Ronoh say they intend to spend Sh17.9 billion to replace old infrastructure and invest in smart metres.
"The money we are losing is huge and that is why as a ministry we want to recoup it as we seek to bring everything to order in the next three years," he said.
Ronoh said they target to lower the loss to 20 per cent and subsequently two per cent as per the global recommendations.
The PS spoke during the closure of a two-day workshop that brought together regulators, CEOs of the nine water works agencies and heads of departments from the ministry.
He also said they are adopting a new technology to help in monitoring of water infrastructure across the country.
Illegal connections, spillages, old infrastructure and lack of maintenance have also been identified as the major contributors of losses.
Ronoh said recovery of non-revenues will be done through public-private partnership.
