Advancing Local-level Participation in Urban Water Services : The Case of Kenya

Abstract

Water is life. It is a basic human need and a fundamental right vital for attaining all other rights. Proper sanitation is only possible with the availability of clean water. It is also necessary to avoid drinking water contamination, a problem that leads to waterborne and related illnesses. The lack of access to water and sanitation is a major crisis, particularly in developing countries. Over 2 billion people lack access to improved water sources, and close to 4 billion lack access to improved sanitation globally. Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to ensure universal access to safe and equitable water and sanitation for all by 2030. This is an ambitious goal. While there has been progress, achieving it will require accelerating efforts by up to six times in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, to meet the deadline.

This research focuses on the challenges related to access to urban water and sanitation in Kenya. With inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, particularly in low-income and peri-urban areas, this study explores the viability of small-scale water service producers (SSSPs). While these producers are proliferating and enabling access in underserved areas, they face sustainability challenges across economic, technical, social, and environmental dimensions. The background information indicates that SSSPs are not well understood, and differing perspectives regarding their unviability contribute to their lack of policy support and government backing. The objective of this research is to enhance understanding of SSSPs and investigate viable alternatives to supplement publicly owned licensed utilities.

The research involved qualitative interviews with water sector professionals, licensed water utility managers, and SSSP operators to identify SSSP's key characteristics. Sustainability indicators guided the study. Through the interviews, open-ended questions were posed using semi-structured interview guides to assess SSSPs’ economic viability, technical feasibility, social acceptability, and environmental sustainability. Internal and external factors influencing their viability emerged throughout the research.

The findings indicate that those operating in low-income areas (LIAs) cannot rely solely on a market approach, which would suggest setting cost-reflective tariffs, as the population cannot afford such rates. As a result, they offer highly subsidized tariffs and depend on donations to bridge the revenue gap. Unfortunately, their small scale also produces high production costs per unit of water sold. Additionally, energy and regulatory costs remain significantly high. Due to limited overall funding for SSSPs, there is a strong tendency to bypass water purification to meet normative water rights standards, as this process is cost intensive. Likewise, they cannot engage technical professionals or obtain adequate technology and equipment to improve their services.

Nonetheless, they possess a superior level of social acceptability. They are owned by the community or by individuals within the community. This enhances both contact and participatory decision-making. They also benefit from high ownership, which is advantageous, for example, in self-policing to prevent theft and report leaks. Together with their small networks that facilitate monitoring for breakages, self- policing, and punitive sanction mechanisms, lead to very low real non-revenue water losses. Additionally, they exhibit high revenue collection efficiency. Only four have managed to meet the licensing standards set by the Water Services Regulatory Board thus far. However, these are ranked among the top ten performing out of ninety licensed utilities.

The thesis observes in its discussions and conclusions that some major underlying problems stem from inequalities, which the government has failed to address. Addressing the water sector issue solely as an inequality problem will lead to a necessary spiral of needed water sector reforms. Advancing only commercially viable utilities in the model prescribed by the Water Act and policies limits water services to medium- and high-income areas, sidelining the rest. Regulatory changes to onboard SSSPs must be considered. Yet, the government needs to consider incentives and capacity building to upscale SSSPs; without such measures, the sector remains at a stalemate, with no progress for the publicly owned utilities among the underserved and poor, and struggling SSSPs at the expense of the citizens.