Water supply and sanitation in Kenya is characterised by low levels of access to water and sanitation, in particular in urban slums and in rural areas, as well as poor service quality in the form of intermittent water supply.Water Service Quality – WASREB Impact Report 2009, pp.27–31. Retrieved 10 March 2010 Seasonal and regional water scarcity in Kenya exacerbates the difficulty to improve water supply.
The Kenyan water sector underwent far-reaching reforms through the Water Act No. 8 of 2002. Previously service provision had been the responsibility of a single National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation as well as of a few local utilities established since 1996. After the passage of the act service provision was gradually decentralised to 91 local Water Service Providers (WSPs). These were linked to 8 regional Water Services Boards (WSBs) in charge of asset management through Service Provision Agreements (SPAs) with the WSPs. The Act also created a national regulatory board that carries out performance benchmarking and is in charge of approving SPAs and tariff adjustments. With the Water Bill, 2014, the functions of the 8 WSBs were transferred to 47 Water Works Development Boards in each county of Kenya.
The Ministry of Water and Irrigation remains in charge of policies for water supply, while the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation is in charge of policies for sanitation.
Although urban water tariffs are high by regional standards (KSh.60/= or US$0.60 per m3 on average in 2014), these tariffs only allow the recovery of operating costs, but not the recovery of capital costs. Full cost recovery is not achieved due to various reasons, including a high level of non-revenue water (average of 42%). Based on the unit cost of production, the nationwide losses due to non-revenue water in 2014 were estimated at KSh.5.2 billion/=, equivalent to US$52 million. Another reason is the need to tap distant water sources at a high cost in some locations. For example, Mombasa is supplied from a source located 220 km from the city. Although 16% of Kenyans in urban areas have access to sewerage, there is no sewerage levy in Kenya, making this expensive service essentially free of charge.
Data sources and interpretation Collecting reliable data on the Kenyan water and sanitation sector is difficult because reporting is often incomplete and different definitions are being used. Two sources of nationwide representative information are censuses carried out every ten years, with the next one scheduled for 2029,Kenya Census, accessed on 9 May 2010 and Demographic and Health Surveys carried out every five years by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. The data thus collected are analysed by the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation of WHO and UNICEF to assess progress towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.African Ministers' Council on Water, AMCOW and Water and Sanitation Program (2006) Getting Africa on Track to Meet the MDGs on Water Supply and Sanitation – A Status Review of Sixteen African Countries, pp.33–43. Retrieved 6 March 2010 These data only assess the availability of water and sanitation infrastructure. They do not assess whether water is safe to drink, sufficient in quantity, continuously available or affordable.
Another important source of information is the annual "impact report" published by the water regulatory agency WASREB since 2008. Through this report much more detailed information is publicly available today on many water service providers than in the past and than in many other countries. However, data in the report refer only to the population served by Water Service Providers, which is not the entire population of Kenya, omitting particularly parts of rural areas.
Water resources
The renewable freshwater resources of Kenya are estimated at 20.2 km3 per year, which corresponds to 647 m3 per capita per year.Ministry of Water and Irrigation: MINISTERIAL STRATEGIC PLAN 2009–2012 – Water for all , p. 7. Retrieved 17 March 2010 The total yearly water withdrawal is estimated to be over 2.7 km3, or less than 14% of resources.Aquastat Country Profile Kenya, p. 4. Retrieved 13 April 2010 However, water resources availability varies significantly in time and between regions. Most parts of the country have two rainy seasons. The long rains are typically from March to May while short rains are typically from October to November.UN World Water Assessment Programme: Case Study Kenya Part II: Water Availability, Retrieved 21 April 2011
In addition, Kenya experiences every three to four years droughts and floods, which affect a large number of the population. The latest severe drought was from 2007 to the end of 2009, which had impacts on all sectors of the economy. The average annual rainfall is 630 mm, but it varies between less than 200 mm in northern Kenya to over 1,800 mm on the slopes of Mount Kenya.Aquastat Country Profile Kenya, p. 1. Retrieved 13 April 2010
Surface water Kenya is divided into five drainage basins. The Lake Victoria Basin Drainage area system in Western Kenya is part of the Nile River Basin. The closed Rift Valley Inland Drainage system includes a number of rivers and lakes, including large freshwater lakes such as Lake Turkana, Lake Baringo and Lake Naivasha, rivers such as the Kerio River, as well as a number of salt lakes.
The Athi Drainage system, the Tana Drainage system and the Ewaso Ng'iro North Drainage system all flow towards the Indian Ocean. The water distribution in the basins is highly uneven with the highest water availability in the Lake Victoria Basin (more than 50%) and the lowest in the Athi Drainage system. Only the Tana and Lake Victoria Basins, have surplus water resources while the three other basins face deficits.
The capital city Nairobi receives its water resources from two drainage systems: The oldest sources, the Kikuyu Springs (used since 1906) and the Ruiru Dam (since 1938) are located in the Athi River Basin. The Sasumua Dam, the Ndakaini-Thika Dam (since 1996) and Chania-B Dam supply Nairobi through interbasin transfer from the Tana River drainage area. About 20% of the supply is from ground water resources which corresponds to around 60,000 to 70,000 m3 per day.Climate variability and water resources degradation in Kenya, p. 56. Retrieved 22 April 2010 Mombasa, Kenya's second largest city, serves its water demand through the Marere Water Works in the south-west, the Baricho Intake at the lower Athi River and from Mzima Springs, upper Athi River, through a 220 km pipeline to the city.Nature's Benefits in Kenya, World Resources Institute , slides 10,11. Retrieved 22 April 2010
Groundwater
Kenya relies on both surface water resources, from rivers, lakes and dammed reservoirs; and on groundwater. Dependence on groundwater is highest in rural areas and in the coastal zone, where urban areas also rely on groundwater.
Groundwater exploitation has considerable potential for boosting water supplies in Kenya but its use is limited by poor water quality, overexploitation, saline intrusion along the coastal areas, and inadequate knowledge of the occurrence of the resource.Barasa M, Crane E, Upton K, Ó Dochartaigh BÉ and Bellwood-Howard I. 2018. Africa Groundwater Atlas: Hydrogeology of Kenya. British Geological Survey. Accessed [27 January 2023]. https://earthwise.bgs.ac.uk/index.php/Hydrogeology_of_Kenya#Groundwater_useMumma, Albert; Lane, Michael; Kairu, Edward; Tuinhof, Albert; Hirji, Rafik. 2011. Kenya Groundwater Governance Case Study. Water papers;. World Bank, Washington, DC. © World Bank. License: CC BY 3.0 IGO. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/17227 On-going maintenance of groundwater infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, is another challenge: fixing broken handpumps is often seen as something that rural communities must manage themselves. Kenya is one of several countries where a professionalized maintenance service model is being developed as an alternative approach to improving the sustainability of water supply systems.
Due to unavailability of surface water sources in dryland areas, groundwater is a major resource for water supply in most of the country. Important aquifers exist in volcanic terrain and associated quaternary sediments, and in sedimentary terrain underlain by metamorphic rocks in northern and coastal Kenya. About 57.21 million cubic metres of groundwater was abstracted in Kenya in 2012. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Access
Water supply Estimates from the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) show that 58% of Kenyans (83% in urban areas and 50% in rural areas) had access to at least basic drinking water sources in 2015. 22% of Kenyans (45% in urban areas and 14% in rural areas) are reported as having access to piped water through a house or yard connection. According to the JMP estimates, access to improved water sources in urban areas decreased from 92% in 1990 to 82% in 2015. In rural areas, however, access increased from 33% to 57% during the same period.Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation: Improved Drinking Water Coverage Estimates – Kenya, March 2010 Retrieved 24 April 2010
The total number of people lacking access to "at least basic" clean water in 2015 was 19 million people.
According to the 2016-17 WASREB report 55% of the total population had "access to water". Previously, according to the definition called "weighted access" (see above), the 2009 Impact Report had estimated that in 2006–2007 only 37% of Kenyans had access to sufficient and safe drinking water close to their homes at an affordable price.Kenya Information Guide Retrieved 16 March 2010 Significant regional differences in access were reported: the highest level was registered in the area served by Tetu Aberdare Water and Sanitation Company (72%) whereas the lowest was recorded in Muthambi in Meru South District (4%). In the capital Nairobi access for the same period was reported at 35%, as opposed to a less realistic figure of 46% reported for 2005–2006.Water and Sanitation Coverage – WASREB Impact Report 2009, pp.20–23. Retrieved 10 March 2010
Water sources
The poor, in particular women and girls, spend a significant amount of time fetching water in both rural and urban areas. For example, the 2007 Citizen Report Card survey showed that users of water kiosks in cities fetch water 4–6 times per day. In Kisumu, this meant that a poor household spent 112 minutes per day to fetch water at normal times, and as much as 200 minutes per day during times of scarcity.Uwazi InfoShop at Twaweza: It's our water too! Bringing greater equity in access to water in Kenya, Policy brief 09/2010, p. 3
Water diaries have been used to document the sources, uses and costs of water at the household level in rural Kenya. People in rural areas use a wide range of water sources, some of which they have to pay for, and some of which are free of charge: Rainwater (rock catchment or roof catchment), hand-dug wells or handpumps (these can be household-owned, private, inside or outside of the village), water kiosk (inside or outside of the village), or vendors who use donkeys and carts or motorized vehicles. Further options include dry riverbed scooping, earth pans, rivers or canals, and piped water inside the dwelling or yard. The water uses of these households are for drinking, cooking, laundry, dish washing, washing/bathing, livestock or small-scale irrigation.