Kenyans in many regions of the country have heaved a sigh of relief after the skies opened and the much-awaited showers came pouring. The Metrological Department had painted a gloomy picture of suppressed rainfall with the blistering heat driving home the point on the effects of climate change and poor management of our water towers and other resources. The last I discussed this water issue was when Cape Town, South Africa, had only months left of water supply leading to very strict rules around its consumption. Understandably so, you would get into trouble for washing your car or having leaky plumbing. The ABC’s of the water cycle are easy to understand and despite the calls to disrupt everything using technology, this is one issue where Occam’s razor, a philosophical problem solving principle, come to mind. At the core of Occam’s razor is the premise that simpler solutions are likely to be a better fit that overly complex ones.
Zeroing down to our urban centres where population density opens up certain possibilities, why do we use portable water in our toilets or do city fathers use the same in our greenways and open spaces or we let runoff from our homes and storm drains go to waste? When you take a second look, it seems ludicrous given the water stress that we are experiencing, yet we persist.
This is where policy interventions can have better and faster impact than any new shiny tech could. Maimbo Malesu of the World Agroforestry Centre once shared at a forum that Kenya’s rainwater potential is over 350 billion cubic meters, enough to support a population of 233 million people or close to five times the current population if well captured and managed.
Scarcity is a source of conflict and increasing consumption pressure on a utility like water has the makings of a governance disaster. Our policymakers should rise up and augment the National Water Services Strategy, the Water Resources Management Strategy and others especially around demand management that covers "efficient water use, water metering, billing, effective collection, network repair" and so on. They should embed the recommendations in the affordable housing pillar of the Big 4 Agenda with its 500,000 units target, better educate and drive awareness across the larger public on these interventions to get buy-in and incentivise the private sector invested in the construction industry to align and adapt; the last two being critical to achieving scale.
The simplest solutions could be it!
Njihia is the Head of Business and Partnerships at Sure Corporation | www.mbuguanjihia.com | @mbuguanjihia
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