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cent of which is unaccounted for as it is lost through leakage.
About four per cent of Kibera’s residents have in-house
water connections, 15 per cent relies on yard taps and 68 per
cent relies on water kiosks managed by private individuals,
Non-Governmental Organisations or Community-Based
Organisations. Although approximately 25 km of pipe network
exists in Kibera, much of this network receives little or no water
due to limited pump capacity, and the diversion of available
water to neighbouring high income areas (COHRE 2007).
The NCWSC and Athi Water Services Board recognize the plight
of the underserved residents of Kibera, and have developed the
informal settlements’ strategic guidelines. The objectives of the
guidelines are to provide a framework for operations in informal
settlements; promote and facilitate partnerships with key
stakeholders; and increase the predictability and transparency of
water andsanitationservices interventions in informal settlements.
It is within this framework that the NCSWC has established the
Department of Informal Settlements, whose overall objective is
to increase coverage, affordability and sustainable access to safe
water and basic sanitation facilities aimed at raising the wellbeing
of the poor living in unplanned areas within Nairobi.
The NCWSC has made some interventions in different
informal settlements of Nairobi in a bid to improve access
to water and sanitation services. Some of these interventions
include (Muiruri and Kaseve 2008):
• The Mukuru Chamber Project, which houses metres for
individual connections. So far, 67 chambers have been
constructed with a total of 1 300 connections, and serving
about 100 000 people in the 12 villages of Mukuru. The
chamber project, funded by the World Bank and completed
in 2006, has reduced the price of water from USD 0.24 to
USD 0.05 per litre, besides providing access to safe water; and
• The Mathare Water Project, which is a joint collaboration
between the NCWSC and Pamoja Trust, and is expected to
construct 45 communal water kiosks in the settlements.
The NCWSC has met with various challenges in providing
water services to the urban poor in Nairobi, including illegal
connections, leakages due to poor quality pipes, unplanned
construction above water and sewerage pipes, community
conflicts, insecurity due to criminal gangs, uncoordinated
interventions by different players, land tenure issues, and the
unplanned nature of the slums (Muiruri and Kaseve 2008).
WATER DEMAND MANAGEMENT
Nairobi has a water deficiency of about 200 000 m
3
per day
and the distribution network is inadequate and outdated. The
NCWSCmanages the supply deficit by rationing of the available
water to the city residents. This means that some areas do not
receive water at certain times of the day. Other efforts being
made include:
• Bulk water transfers to areas that do not receive water on a
regular basis;
• Modification of water distribution network to facilitate more
equitable water distribution in the city;
• Development of new water sources; and
• Recharge enhancement.
Although rainwater harvesting and water use efficiency measures
could substantially augment current and projected water demands
for the city, these measures are not widely used in Nairobi.
WATER RE-USE, WASTEWATER TREATMENT AND
DISCHARGE
The enactment of the Environmental Management
and Coordination Act (1999), with its requirement for
environmental audits and fairly deterrent legal and financial
sanctions, has forced a number of businesses and industrial
plants to embrace cleaner production concepts and principles.
It is estimated that over 10 000 establishments have carried
out the initial environmental audit to determine the impacts
of their production processes and outputs. The capacity of
the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA)
to cope with compliance and enforcement of the statutory
provisions, and to follow up on the implementation of the
environmental management plans, has been a weakness
in the improvement in water use efficiency and ecosystem
degradation. Consequently, loss of water and discharge of
wastewater, which does not conform to the set standards into
the sewer or natural environment, are common.
Whereas water re-use and wastewater treatment may be
minimal, Nairobi has two sewerage treatment plants at Ruai
and Kariobangi. The utilization of the Ruai plant is about 74 per
cent of the design capacity due to its dilapidated infrastructure.
Plant utilization at Kariobangi treatment works is lower at
39 per cent. Despite improvements in treatment efficiency
and reduction in the pollution load, the facilities do not meet