Economy

Access to power better than that of piped water in Kenya: WB

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Access to power better than that of piped water in Kenya. PHOTO | POOL

More Kenyans have access to electricity than they have to water amid low investment in the provision of the basic service against rising demand, a World Bank report has shown.

The Country Partnership Framework (CPF) states that piped water covers only a third of the population in the country while two-thirds of Kenyans have access to electricity compared to basic sanitation.

It adds that Kenya’s water availability has halved in the past 30 years, and it now has less renewable freshwater per capita than Somalia.

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“Kenya can focus on least-cost, sustainable, county-level interventions to improve services at scale,” the report stated.

‘’Measures to improve water utilities’ performance could mobilise up to $1.5 billion and enable revenue-based commercial financing. New low-cost technologies in rural water and sanitation services (WSS), non-sewered urban sanitation, farmer-led irrigation and small-scale water harvesting are areas where gains are possible in the shorter term and at lower costs.”

Achieving universal access to drinking water and sanitation by 2030 has been challenging due to lower levels of investment, projected population growth and climate change.

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World Bank states that only 15 per cent of water resources are developed, while a water storage capacity of 103 cubic metres (m3) per capita is below the sub-Saharan Africa average and countries with similar hydrology and water productivity at only Sh1,716 ($14) per cubic meter, below the low- and middle-income countries average of Sh3,065 ($25).

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