LETERS: Scale up efforts to enhance access to water

The 26th anniversary of the World Water Day was marked recently. Each year, since its designation, UN-Water — the entity that co-ordinates the organisation’s work on water and sanitation — sets a theme for World Water Day corresponding to a current or future challenge.

This year’s theme, “Leaving no one behind”, focused on how the world can attain sustainable development goal (SDG 6) of ensuring water for all by 2030. Water is progressively becoming a more and more scarce commodity as our demands rise, and as the world gets drier. According to UN, over two billion people do not have access to safe drinking water.

Kenya is not an exception in this figure. The Water Services Regulatory Agency (WASREB) reported that only 55 percent of the population have access to clean and safe water.

Of the country’s 55 public water companies, only nine provide continuous supply. Urban areas have better access than rural areas. Sadly, the urban poor pay more for water than the urban rich. In Nairobi, for instance, those without access pay up to Sh20 per 20 litre jerrican for water of equal or less quality while those with better access pay maximum Sh64 per 1,000 litres.

Given the dwindling resources, and increased demand due to increased populations (both human and animals) and industrial needs, the country may not guarantee water for all – a basic human right – unless cross-sectoral approaches are embraced to address challenges that vulnerable and marginalized groups face in water access.

Challenges

To ensure water for all by 2030, counties need to appreciate that water knows no boundaries. Regions that share water resources – and related challenges – ought to implement holistic cross-county policies that are evidence-based and responsive to individual county needs. Disaggregated data should help identify the demand, bottlenecks to full participation and how the better-off counties can leverage to uplift the worse-off.

Secondly, there is a need for increased county and national budgets for water and sanitation services.

The country’s estimated cost for water supply is Sh1.7 trillion, while current available budget is Sh592 billion. Whereas this may not be achievable in the short and medium term, there is a need for national and county governments to narrow the deficit as it would make a greater economic sense in the long run. The return on investment would stretch beyond enhancing supply to encompass health and productivity for instance – if we were to account for water-related diseases and time cost accrued in search for water.

Therefore, leaving no one behind theme calls for the audit and reformation of the systemic challenges – these include social, political, economic, water provision models and governance structures, both at the county and national levels.

Emmanuel Mwau via email.