2005 - 2006 - Pinsent Masons Water Yearbook 2012

KENYA PART 2: COUNTRY ANALYSIS
Urban data
Served by piped water 67%
Access to sewerage 69%
Reforms
Investigations were started in 2004 into losses caused by council officials allowing illegal water
connections and tenders. Approximately 50% of Nairobi’s was unaccounted for, adding up to more
than KES1.1 billion (€10.4 million) a month.
The responsibility for water services provision is to be transferred to the Water Services Boards
(WSB) in 2005. Responsibility for water services provision will be decentralised to the regional level.
This will see the separating of the management of water and sanitation from the management of
water resources. The WSBs will appoint water services providers, with a minimum of 20,000
connections. These providers will take various forms including companies established by local
authorities in the urban areas and community schemes for the rural areas.
A partial privatisation
VE and its local partner Saureca Space gained a management contract in 1999 for water services in
Nairobi, involving improving basic services and reducing distribution losses from their current 50%
level for some 2 million people and this may be developed into a concession contract in the future.
The contract started as a 10 year outsourcing contract for Nairobi's water services for a flat fee,
involving installing 40,000 meters in the first four years and a total of 130,000 meters by 2009.
The 2002 Water Act, allows for concession contracts to be awarded. It also authorises the setting up
of a national regulator and appeals systems. At the local level, political opposition to the presence of
foreign companies has even resulted in aid funding being withdrawn. The Government’s failure to
provide universal water access by 2000 has been a major boost for PSP at the national level. A new
plan seeks universal water access by 2010.
A PSP contract for the 2.1 million people living in Mombassa would include the whole of Mombassa
and the coastal region, which has a number of separate urban areas. Access to piped water in the
region is 29%, along with 10% for sewerage.
The World Bank’s Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility carried out a series of studies and
seminars between 2000 and 2003 for preparing for PSP for water and sanitation in Nairobi, Kisumu
and Mombassa and for training the Water Services Regulatory Board. The WB considered that a
lease contract would be the appropriate form of a contract for Nairobi and this is currently under
consideration. Likewise, a US$10.4 million 15 year lease was recommended for Kisumu, which will
be considered in 2006.
Freshwater
Annual availability (1998) 7.4km 3
Per capita 378m 3
Annual withdrawal (1992) 1.1km 3
Domestic 20%
Industrial 4%
Agriculture 76%
The National Water Conservation and Pipelines Company (NWCPC) was set up in 1988 to operate
systems that could be run on a cost recovery basis. However, the NWCPC has since accumulated
debts of KSH1 billion and is unable to service its interest charges.
129 Pinsent Masons Water Yearbook 2005 – 2006