Low income earners to get clean piped water

Bamburi resident, Janet Adhiambo fetches water from a tap at Bamburi, in Mombasa North mainland. Mombasa water supply and sanitation has extended water services in slums within Mombasa County at a low cost. The project is dubbed low income consumer services. A bout 60 percent of Mombasa residents live in slums. 4th August 2016. Photo Omondi Onyango/Standard

An ambitious project targeting the extension of water supply to more than 300,000 people has been launched.

The project will mostly target residents living in low income settlements. The targeted residents are spread out in Likoni, Nyali, Kisauni, Changamwe, Jomvu and Mvita constituencies. 

The project also aims to ensure that all county residents have access to clean piped water in the next five years.

Officials at the Mombasa Water Supply and Sanitation Company (Mowassco) said a lower income consumers department had already been established and that 2,500 people would have access to clean running water by December this year.

The county government and Mowassco have partnered with Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) of the World Bank, Videns Evides International (VEI) and the Kenya Information Settlements Improvement Project (Kisip) to ensure that residents were given clean piped water.

"At the moment, we are expanding water lines and several people are receiving piped water in their homes for the first time. Eventually, every low income area in Mombasa will be receiving water," said Mowassco's Lower Income Consumers Manager Isaac Okoyo, yesterday.

Mr Okoyo said the county government and Mowassco had introduced a social connection policy that sees the low income consumers pay an initial Sh1,500 for connection and repay the remaining Sh8,500 within 24 months.

Public toilets

He explained that the project includes putting up public toilets in various strategic settlements where hundreds of residents could also access clean water.

Mowassco Corporate Communications Manager Sarah Langat said the firm had launched a campaign to increase direct connections to low income residents who have had problems getting such services over the years.

"We have deployed staff to conduct a door to door campaign for residents to embrace direct connection beginning with West Mainland, and we expect to connect 450 people after this exercise," Ms Langat explained.

She said the low income consumers department has its own pro-poor strategic plan to guide its overall response and operations, and that it had developed a social connection policy to provide a tailored approach to dealing with issues affecting water and sanitation in low income areas.