ATM dispenser brings cheap, clean water to slum dwellers

Slum dwellers in Nairobi’s Mathare are now able to access clean and affordable water through ATM-like dispensers.

The system, the first of its kind in Kenya, uses smart cards with a self-service kiosk that supplies the water for as low as 50 cents.

Residents simply swipe smart cards at the ATM dispensers installed in Mathare to dispense and pay for the amount of water that one wants to fetch.

The water ATM machines have now edged out vendors who have for long exploited the residents by selling water for Sh30 per 20-litre container, taking away the little money that many would have saved for other basic needs like food.

With the new system, residents pay as little as 50 cents for a 20 litre-container.

“This is the best project ever that has been started in Mathare. I am now able to access clean water at a low cost and without worrying about its safety,” said Mary Wangare, who lives in the slum.

She said that for long she had been exploited by water vendors who have always capitalised on the unavailability of water in the area to make a killing. The water ATMs will also tame cases of cholera outbreaks and illnesses caused by drinking dirty water.

The Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) said the initiative gives the locals an opportunity to access the resource that is scarce in informal settlements.

The informal settlements lack infrastructure to connect piped water to individual homes.

“We have come up with this technology to enable the slum dwellers access not only clean, but also affordable water by swiping their smart cards at the water ATM dispenser,” said Mbaruku Vyakweli, the NCWSC corporate affairs manager.

Mr Vyakweli said NCWSC will launch similar projects in other informal settlements such as Mukuru Kwa Reuben and Kibera in Nairobi.

Residents swipe their smart cards, which they load with money at the water kiosk or they can as well top up with money using mobile phones.

Once the card has been placed at the ATM and the customer keys in the amount of water that she wants, water then automatically flows from the dispenser to the container.

Mathare residents were given the smart cards for free and all they have to do is to load them with money. There is no limit to the amount of cash that one can top up, allowing many to make monthly or weekly budgets.

The dispensers have been set up through a partnership between the government and the Danish water engineering company Grundfos.
The Mathare project is managed by a village chairman and other administrators.

The water dispensing machines are also being used in India. For a few cents, the water purification machine dispenses 20 litres of water, giving the poor an alternative to pumping contaminated water from below ground.

In Kenya, the water ATM project comes at a time when it is struggling to introduce the use of smart cards in payment of bus fare, a move that has met resistance.

The two attempts by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) failed as Kenyans shied from embracing the smart cards technology.

NWSC is betting on use of technology to boost efficiency and seal revenue leak loopholes.

In March, it announced that it will invest Sh1 billion in the next three years to install smart meters that could help cut fraud in its billing system and enable it to tap the revenue it needs to improve water supply.

The devices, to be initially installed for the top 10,000 water users, will record the amount of water consumed and remotely — through mobile and radio networks — convey the information back to centralised servers.

The list of top water consumers includes beer maker Kenya Breweries Limited, the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta National Hospital and soft drinks maker Coca-Cola.

NCWSC aims to connect 90,000 of its quarter of a million customers to the smart meters in five years, hoping to rid its system of illegal connections and inaccurate billings.

The water firm has also set aside Sh42 million to install electromagnetic flow meters to facilitate remote metering.

On average, one smart meter costs about $1,000 (Sh98,490), but prices differ depending on the technology that is used to send information back to the servers.

The average meter of 0.5 inches used by most Kenyan consumers costs around Sh8,500, according to Davis & Shirtliff, a water technology firm.

Smart meters log, record consumption on pre-set intervals while others record data after a certain amount of water has been consumed.

The water company’s plan is to have meters that channel larger amounts of data connected using Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology, meaning each meter will be fitted with a SIM card.

Smaller meters will use free radio frequencies to automatically transmit data.

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