- Illegal water connections are common in Kenya; burst pipes and leaks sometimes takes weeks or even months to fix.
- Water Action Groups, made up of citizen volunteers and community leaders, are demanding better services and accountability from water utilities.
- By the end of a 2-year pilot project in December 2010, Water Action Groups helped resolve 97% of more than 400 complaints.
Serene and elegant in her cream blouse and dark skirt, Elizabeth Nyangesa seems out of place among the corrugated metal shacks and litter strewn dirt roads of Nairobi’s Mathare North slum. She works in a nearby industrial zone but lives in a one-room shanty here, where modern services are in short supply.
Sometimes there isn’t enough money for food or the charcoal to cook it. Her monthly earnings of 6,000 shillings (about $66) pay for her daughters’ schooling, rent, food, and a daily visit to the closest bathhouse and toilets, where a single shower is shared by both men and women.
“You go fast, and then many will go inside,” she says. “But it's not enough. We need many [showers], for woman and for man.”
Like Elizabeth, millions of people have moved to Kenya’s sprawling cities in search of a better life, only to find that necessities like clean water and sanitation are scarce and expensive — especially for the poorest people in overcrowded slums or informal settlements.
Illegal water connections are common. Burst pipes and leaks sometimes take weeks or even months to fix. Often, residents’ voices aren’t heard.
But things are changing.
Kenya’s new Constitution gives all people the right to enough safe water and sanitation. As the Government of Kenya, the World Bank and other partners enhance infrastructure in various parts of the country, consumers are starting to demand better services and accountability.
Citizen Groups Resolving Complaints
Water Action Groups (WAGs) made up of citizen volunteers and community leaders are helping resolve sometimes longstanding complaints.
The groups formed two years ago in a pilot program backed by the Kenya Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) in partnership with the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program, and the German Agency for International Cooperation.
The groups gathered feedback on water services across neighborhoods in the capital city of Nairobi, in Kisumu and Kakamega Town in Western Kenya, and in the coastal city of Mombasa.
By the end of the pilot in December 2010, WAGs helped resolve 97% of more than 400 complaints. Utilities also improved their complaint-handling systems – in some cases, dramatically, says Water and Sanitation Specialist Rosemary Rop, of the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program, Africa region.
But, she adds, this success rate was not easily attained. The groups had to exert pressure on utilities that failed to resolve citizen complaints – first by engaging with the utility management, and secondly by escalating about 37% of complaints to the Water Services Board and national Regulatory agency that oversee the utility companies.
‘Brilliant Idea’
Along the way, the groups encountered resistance from the water utilities and faced threats of physical harm after reporting cases of corruption. But they also won fans among residents, regulators, service providers, and international nonprofit organizations.
In Mombasa, water scarcity and infrastructure failures force rationing, and people must supplement their supply by purchasing water—often at a steep premium--from vendors. Before WAGs came into existence, the Mombasa water utility “had very poor public relations,” says Grace Oloo, the secretary for the Mombasa Water Action Group. "At least now, they have tried to have one-on-ones with each community, and that has reduced conflicts," says Oloo.
Mombasa WAG member Morris Mae says the water utility “has accepted us, because what we report to them is a genuine situation. And now they come very responsively. They don’t delay at all. Especially for a leakage, they come immediately.”
“The Water Action Groups were a brilliant idea,” says Eng. Moses Kinya, managing director of the Mombasa Water and Sewerage Company, once a government entity but now independent and regulated by a regional water services board.
“They've really helped us get more in touch with the customers through a different avenue we would not have otherwise had."
Right to Safe Water
Such improved communication will be increasingly necessary as people realize their rights under Kenya’s new constitution, says Herbert Kassamani, head of communications for the Kenya Water Services Regulatory Board. The regulator initiated the Water Action Groups pilot program with partners in November 2009.
"The new Constitution is going to affect not only the way water is delivered, but the way government services are delivered generally," he says.
"The mood in the country now is such that people feel they need to be part of processes, part of systems, and I think it's just a question of time before people will start asking the government, you committed to this and we're not seeing it."
For instance, Joseph Maritim, a civil servant and resident of a neighborhood in the Mavoko municipality outside of Nairobi, is protesting steep water bills issued by his small private provider, Sawada Management Company. The bills, at 3,000 shillings per month or higher, far exceed the 1,000 shillings or less that would be expected in areas covered by the main water utility, which does not serve his neighborhood.
Maritim has been disconnected and now must cart water from a container outside his house so his family can use the toilet or wash. He had first written the local municipal council, but then turned to the Nairobi Water Action Group in April 2011 for help. The Water Action Group in turn contacted the Athii Water Services Board and the national regulator, and are still waiting for a response.
“He is not a very poor man, but he is suffering,” says Nairobi WAG member Moseti. “He has no water here in this house, but he has his rights to have water.”
Usually, water-related complaints come from such middle-class consumers, largely because they feel more empowered to raise their voices, says WASREB WAGs Coordinator Alois Muthini.
Residents of slums and informal settlements say they are “disillusioned” with resolving problems or obtaining better services, and usually don’t speak up. Increased focus on the urban poor is something the WAGs are trying to encourage, he says.
Next Steps
With the pilot over, the Regulatory Board is looking at the next steps for scaling up the WAG accountability program, possibly throughout the country, says Kassamani. He says any new rollout will include an electronic system to track feedback and complaints – considered necessary to reduce the burden on WAG volunteers, some of whom were involved in WAGs issues nearly every day.
While the budget is small and timing uncertain, the need for a feedback mechanism is growing as the public increasingly demands input into decision-making and holds government to a higher standard, says Kassamani.
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