This archive report was first published on 8 July 2020.
Published on July 8, 2020, a report by the Water Services Regulatory Board (Wasreb) revealed that Kenya is losing up to Sh8.9 billion annually due to leakages, illegal connections, and poor management.
Non-revenue water (NRW), which is the difference between the quantity of water put into the distribution system and what is billed or unbilled as authorised consumption, currently stands at 43 per cent, exceeding the acceptable benchmark of 20 per cent.
Out of the 88 service providers assessed, only eight had non-revenue water within the acceptable range, with the remaining 80 struggling to manage their water resources effectively.
The volume of 115 million cubic metres lost every year is sufficient to serve Nairobi County with a daily demand of 750,000 cubic metres for five months, assuming a 20 per cent acceptable level of loss.
Wasreb's CEO, Robert Gakubia, expressed concern over the high non-revenue water levels, stating that it starves the sector of the scarce resource that can be harnessed to improve access levels.
He noted that non-revenue water has increased by two per cent in 2018/19 compared to 2017/18, and that the regulator is developing an online system for anonymously reporting on NRW as part of the Operation Okoa Maji initiative.
The agency's CEO is confident that the initiative will help reduce the current service provision gap without the need to build new infrastructure or exploit new water sources in the short to medium term.
Reducing water losses has the potential to increase revenues for utilities, reduce unit operating costs, and unlock savings that can be used to expand access and improve service delivery.
