Programme description

Title: Water sector reform programme
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Kenya
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Water and Irrigation
Overall term: 2003 to 2013

Context

Prior to the reforms in the Kenyan water sector, the standard of water and sanitation services was constantly declining. This was mainly because water management was unprofessional and centralised, the infrastructure was poorly maintained, and tariffs were kept too low as a result of political influence.

No pro-poor policies were in place, so the poor depended on informal, unregulated services, often provided by cartels using unlawful practices. They often had to pay five to ten times more for water of doubtful quality than consumers connected to the utilities. This led to a high incidence of water-borne diseases and unacceptable living conditions due to inadequate sanitation, which in turn hampered development and lowered the chances for people in urban, low-income areas to break out of the poverty cycle.

A top-down management approach also characterised the management of water resources. Nearly all the country’s measuring stations collapsed, and users drew water without control, leading to over-exploitation. Pollution of the environment also went unpunished. Rampant deforestation in Kenya saw forest coverage fall from 17 % in 1990 to just 1.2 % today. Most alarming has been the degradation of Kenya’s so-called ‘natural water towers’ – five forested mountains that serve as natural reservoirs supplying up to 90 % of the country’s water. The loss of these forest areas has devastated the supply and quality of fresh water. Between 1969 and 1999, the annual per capita storage of surface water declined from 11.4 to 4.3 cubic metres.

Objective

The urban poor enjoy increased, sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, and water resource management has improved.

Approach

Kenya’s water sector reforms are intended to formalise service provision to all citizens and fulfil their human right to water and sanitation. Discrimination of the urban poor should end, and they should enjoy the same benefits of service provision as people in the middle and high income brackets. A financing mechanism has been established to extend services to poor, under-served areas. This is the Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF), which promotes the scaling up of low-cost technology for the provision of clean water and basic sanitation. Another new body, the Water Resources Management Authority, is now implementing a catchment management approach. With the active participation of the water users, this will increase water availability, while reducing water conflicts and the pollution of water resources.

GIZ (formerly GTZ, DED and InWEnt) has been supporting Kenya’s water sector reforms since 2003, during which time the programme has cooperated closely with KfW Entwicklungsbank. The harmonisation of technical and financial assistance has helped to ensure value for money and a sustainable impact on the ground.

The fourth phase of the GIZ programme commenced in January 2011 and will run for a duration of three years. It involves five support components.

• Water sector reform (MWI)
• Regulatory authority (WASREB)
• Poverty fund – Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF)
• Water Resources Management (WRMA, WRUAS)
• Scaling up of plot sanitation (WSTF)

In 2006, a sector-wide approach was started, involving joint financing with other donors, all of whom participate in conferences and the annual joint sector reviews. There are also regular meetings with donors and civil society representatives at which the ministry and water sector institutions report on their performance.

Results achieved so far

• The MWI has set up a new policy framework consisting of the Water Sector Strategic Plan, as well as national strategies for water supply, sanitation and integrated water resources management.
• Conflicts over water have declined in sub-catchment areas thanks to the work of water resource users associations, as well as wetland protection activities and the issuing of water permits to control over-extraction. Water polluters are now identified and dealt with. Participatory catchment planning has been introduced and is now the standard in Kenya.
• The Water Services Trust Fund has begun to scale up the provision of water and sanitation services. It now aims to help the water services providers reach around 400,000 additional people every year. So far 700,000 people have benefited from new access to water, and 60,000 have gained access to sanitation. The expansion concept is currently being developed to include sanitation, and in 2013 the WSTF will have reached 11 million additional people.
• The Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) has put in place an information system and now publishes an annual performance report – the Impact Report – on water and sanitation. For the first time in Kenya, this provides a national overview of the current situation, thus exerting pressure on water service providers constantly to improve their performance. All the major performance indicators for providers have shown steady improvement since the reform.
• In low-income urban areas (four pilot towns), under-served people have been empowered through the creation of water action groups. These groups are negotiating partners on behalf of the consumers, feeding their concerns back to the regulator whose job it is to protect their interests. For the first time, consumers and the under-served now have a voice that is heard not only by the water companies, but also at national level by the regulator.
• With the WSTF, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation is now promoting environmentally-sound sanitation technologies such as EcoSan, and introducing bio-digesters and baffle reactors for the efficient treatment of effluent. The by-products, including biogas and fertilisers, help to protect the environment while improving people’s livelihoods.
• The Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA) now publishes an annual report on the status of the country’s water resources. This should help increase public awareness and safeguard the environment for future generations.