Survey shows State requires Sh100b to raise water access

The government needs Sh100 billion to ensure every Kenyan has access to clean water, a new report shows.

The report, released on October 5 by the Water Service Regulatory Board (Wasreb), says there are 26 million Kenyans who cannot access this rare commodity from the 91 registered utilities.

According to the ninth edition of Impact Assessment Report on Water Services, access to clean water is at 65 per cent in the urban areas and 49 in rural areas.

Out of the 47 counties, residents of Vihiga are the most affected as water coverage in their area stands at just 16 per cent, with Laikipia having the highest at 86 per cent. Some 19 counties have water coverage at less than 50 per cent. The report further revealed that the current Sh11 billion investments is just 10 per cent of what is actually needed to achieve the country’s Vision 2030 of universal water access.

“Investments by Water Services Boards for the period 2014/15 amounted to Sh11.2 billion, a decrease of Sh8.2 billion compared to 2013/14. This decline implies that the investment gap for water and sanitation infrastructure continues to widen,” read the report in part.

The 91 regulated utilities are currently serving just 20 million Kenyans through 1.6 million connections. But in order to reach all the 46 million Kenyans, Wasreb chairman Anthony Kiroken said 200,000 new connections are needed every year from the current 14,000.

“In this category, we require a steady growth of 350,000 new connections to reach at least 3.2 million persons. By all means this is quite a challenge,” said Mr Kiroken. But one of the biggest challenges revealed across board was the menace of non-revenue water.

This contributes 43 per cent of water that has undergone treatment but ends up not being paid for due to mostly leakages attributed to rampant urbanisation that forces pipeline rerouting and worn out infrastructure.