Rural Water Supply and Sanitation: Evaluation and Feasibility of WASH Development Projects in Kenya

Preface

By 2006, 57 percent of Kenya’s 36.6 million people had access to improved drinking water, and 42 percent had access to improved sanitation facilities. Water availability helped inform the way in which Kenya provided water resources management and water supply and sanitation (WSS) services.

Kenya made major reforms to its WSS services sector through the passage of its Water Act of 2002. The Act was instrumental in decentralizing Kenya’s WSS services and creating the institutional framework that exists today. Through the creation of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (MoWI), the government consolidated the responsibility to develop water resources, policy, and overall sector monitoring functions in MoWI, while devolving water service provisions to local water operators. In addition, an independent regulator, the Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB), was created for the regulation of water and sewerage services, including licensing, quality assurance, and issuance of guidelines for rates, fees, and handling service complaints. Eight Water Services Boards (WSBs) were established and are responsible for the efficient and economical provision of water and sewerage services within their areas of jurisdiction. The eight WSBs cover the whole country and are responsible for asset development and overall responsibility for services. However, direct provision of water services is undertaken by Water Service Providers (WSPs) to whom the responsibility is delegated by the WSBs. Still, WASREB can make exceptions. The WSPs can be community groups, non-governmental organizations, or autonomous entities established by local authorities or other persons. As a result, improvements and expansion of WSS services is beginning to gain ground, but the needed financing, local capacity building, and an improved system of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) remain as important considerations.

Kenya’s rural sub-sector has experienced marked improvements in drinking water access, but access to improved sanitation faciltities has remained relatively elusive. Access may increase as national water reforms are fully implemented and water service providers in rural areas attract greater amounts of technical assistance, donor contributions, and greater participation of the private sector. Although, Kenya’s rural areas boast relatively high WSS service access levels compared with other sub-Saharan African countries, WSS service is distributed unequally; the Rift Valley and Lake Victoria South Regions have the highest percentage of unserved populations in the country. The Water Act (2002) provided for the creation of a Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF) to assist in financing the provision of water services to areas without adequate water services and a Water Appeals Board (WAB) for resolving water related disputes.

Kenya is a water-scarce country with less than 1,000m³ per capita of renewable freshwater supplies. Water availability helps inform the way in which Kenya approaches water resources management and water supply and sanitation (WSS) services.

Eng. Prof. Lawrence O. Gumbe

Professor of Environmental and Biosystems Engineering

Technical University of Kenya

Chapter One

1.Introduction

1.1Evolution of Water and Sanitation Sector in Kenya

The history of the water and sanitation sector in Kenya is characterised by institutional fragmentation that led to numerous inefficiencies and by subsequent attempts at reform.

The history of piped water supply in Kenya can be traced back to the colonial period between 1920 and independence in 1963 when the first attempts were made at regulating water supply in the colony and protectorate of Kenya, while responsibility was shared by many institutions. In the 1950s and early 60s, responsibility for the administration of water supply was split between three institutions: the Ministry of Works operating in urban centres with centralised water service provision; Local Authorities that were deemed capable of managing water supply; and the Water Development Department, which was responsible for developing new water supplies for urban and rural centres. There was no single framework for the administration and management of water. In 1952 the Water Act (Cap 372) was enacted, which remained the legal basis for the water sector until 2002 (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

Figure 1.1. A map of Kenya showing the 47 counties.

In the sanitation subsector there was no functioning institutional framework either. The local population, moreover, was reluctant to adopt sanitary measures imposed by the colonial government. Between 1929 and 1939 intense public health education campaigns were carried out which led to the diffusion of pit latrines (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

By 1954 different types of sanitation were in use in different parts of Kenya: pit latrines were in use in most native reserves, bucket type latrines prevailed in towns while waterborne sanitation was used in the European quarters of major towns. During this decade, there was the freedom struggle and consequent detention of people in detention camps and this led to the neglect of adequate sanitation and in the proliferation of communal latrines (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

During the first decade of Independent Kenya (1983-1990), attempts at simplifying the administration of water supply resulted in the transfer of all organisations responsible for water to the Ministry of Agriculture in 1964. The distribution of responsibilities and authority was however unclear and led to bottlenecks and inefficiencies. In 1965 the Kenyan Government stated in Sessional Paper No. 10 on African Socialism and its Application to Planning in Kenya that government policy had to be directed towards the eradication of poverty, illiteracy and disease. This initiated a period of active involvement in water policy by the government, based on the principle that water is a social good to be either provided free of charge or subsidised. As a result, water tariffs between 1970 and 1981 were heavily subsidised and in contradiction with the principle of operating cost recovery. Throughout the 1960s, the Environmental Sanitation Programme supported by WHO-UNICEF was carried out in Kenya with the aims of developing water supplies for small rural communities, improving waste disposal methods and providing sanitary education for the rural population (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

The rural water supply schemes set up as part of the programme were operated by County Councils (under the Ministry of Local Government). In 1972 about 560 rural water supply schemes were running in Kenya and provided water to a population of about 664,000, UNICEF reported. Local communities also started developing their own water supplies and set up water committees: they received training about design systems, hydraulic calculations, costs and submission methods. A follow up study by UNICEF carried out in 1974 showed the many problems that affected these projects (Nyanchaga, E.N and K.S. Ombongi. 2007).

In 1970 the Government of Kenya (GoK) signed a credit agreement with Sweden to finance Rural Water Supply Development. The WHO was to provide a study of the water situation in the country. The study, completed in 1973, showed that in Kenya there was a major lack in senior and technical staff; while donors could provide most development funds, current expenditure could not be covered by local funds and the Government lacked a long term plan of water supply development. In response, a fully fledged Ministry of Water Resources Management and Development (MoWRMD) was created in 1974. The Ministry took over government operated water schemes as well as those operated by county councils. In the same year of 1974, the National Water Master Plan Initiative was launched. Its primary aim was to develop new water supply schemes and secure access to potable water within reasonable distance to all Kenyans. The initiative bore the slogan, Water for all by the year 2000. (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

In the transition period (1980-1992), the government began experiencing budget constraints which put a strain on the ambitious projects of providing universal access to safe water and expanding the water and sewerage systems. Priority was given to the rehabilitation of existing schemes and the construction of large scale water projects such as the Baricho and Kilimanjaro water schemes. In 1980 a National Sanitation Council was established to sensitise the population about the health benefits of sanitation and to advise and guide local authorities on the matter. The Council slowly faded without accomplishing its mandate (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

In 1983, a Water Use Study carried out by SIDA confirmed that the situation was unsustainable and suggested decentralisation and removing operation and maintenance responsibilities from the Ministry. To improve performance and efficiency and to reduce the financial burden of the water sector, in June 1988 the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation (NWCPC) was established. Its role was to operate water supply systems under state control on a commercial basis (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

But the centralised approach and commercialization of local utilities failed to achieve improvements. Thus the idea of creating local-government owned commercial utilities emerged. A Second National Water Master Plan was formulated in 1992, and a new policy approach emphasising decentralisation and a demand-driven approach was discussed at the national level. The City of Eldoret went ahead in 1994 and set up a water and sewer department with finances that were separate from the municipal budget. The utility’s board included representatives of NGOs, women’s organisations, the chamber of commerce and industry and the Kenya Consumer Organization. The commercialisation of the utility in Eldoret as well as in Nyeri and Kericho was supported by the German Development Co-operation (GTZ) (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

The approach was formalised through by the Ministry of Local Government, through the Companies Act Cap. 486 of 1996 which allowed the establishment of publicly owned, commercially run water and sanitation companies. As of 2002, this approach had led to significant improvements in terms of reduction of non-revenue water, improved bill collection and fewer complaints in Nyeri and Eldoret. However, other local water companies in Kitale and Nakuru had to be taken over again by the national government due to financial problems (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

In 1999, the first National Policy of Water Resources Management and Development was published. The policy stated that the government would hand over urban water systems to autonomous departments within local authorities, and rural water supply to communities. Another provision of this document was placing water and sanitation services under single utilities. While developing the National Water Policy, the Government also established a National Task Force to review the Water Act, Cap 372, and draft amendments that would result in a complete overhaul of the sector (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

The current legal framework for the Kenyan water and sanitation sector is based on the Water Act No. 8 of 2002 which became effective in March 2003. The Water Act (2002) introduced far reaching reforms based on the following principles:

The separation of the management of water resources from the provision of water services;

The separation of policy making from day-to-day administration and regulation;

Decentralisation of functions to lower level state organs; and

The involvement of non-government entities in the management of water resources and in the provision of water services.

The implementation of these principles triggered a wide-ranging restructuring of the sector and led to the creation of new institutions. The Water Sector Reform Secretariat (WSRS) was formed as a transitional unit in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation to oversee the formation of the new water sector institutions. In 2004, the Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF) was established to provide financial assistance towards capital investment costs in areas lacking adequate services (usually inhabited by the poor). A Transfer Plan was devised in 2005 (through Legal Notice No. 101 of the 12 August 2005) to direct the transfer of staff and assets from the central government to the newly founded Water Services Boards and Water Service Providers (for detailed role descriptions see the next paragraph) (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

To guide the implementation of the Water Act, a draft National Water Services Strategy (NWSS) for the years 2007–2015 was formulated in June 2007. Its mission was to realise the goals of the MDG declaration and the Vision 2030 of the Kenyan Government concerning access to safe and affordable water and basic sanitation by responsive institutions within a regime of well defined standards and regulation. NWSS was based on the identification of sustainable access to safe water and basic sanitation as a human right and an economic good. Among the core commitments were: cost recovery by water service providers to ensure sustainable water and sanitation for all; and the formalisation of service provision. In addition, MoWI also elaborated pro-poor implementation plan (Nyanchaga and Ombongi. 2007).

The Draft Water Bill of 2012, If voted into law, was expected to transform the 8 Water Service Boards (Asset Holding Companies) into 47 Water Works Development Boards in each county of Kenya. This is in line with the decentralization or devolution of functions prescribed in