Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Getting connected: cooperating on water For the 1 billion people living in informal settlements worldwide, gaining access to basic services – like safe water – can be a daily struggle. But in one town in Kenya, SNV and its partners are pioneering a pro-poor model of service delivery that ensures sustainable safe water supply to low-income households. Set on the shores of Lake Naivasha in Kenya’s Rift Valley, the town of Naivasha is famous for commercial farming of flowers for export. But while it brings prosperity for some, the booming flower industry has a downside, with the town’s rapid growth meaning more than one third of Naivasha’s 300,000 residents now live in underserved informal settlements. For many of these people, accessing water for their daily needs means either walking to the polluted lake or buying unsafe, high-fluoride water sold by local entrepreneurs from donkey carts. Now however, there is an alternative. By partnering with Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) and Dutch water company Vitens, SNV has enabled local service provider Naivasha Water and Sewerage Company (NWSC) to apply a pro-poor water service delivery model in Naivasha’s informal settlements. SNV has developed a water delivery model, an institutional framework and a capacity development plan to strengthen the service provider’s operations, while WSUP and other partners have funded the necessary infrastructure development. Now NWSC buys water in bulk from private borehole owners, which it sells from local water kiosks constructed using funds from various partners. Consumers have an option to purchase either non-fluoride water at Kshs. 3 (approx. €0.026) for 20 litres, or fluoride water at Kshs. 2 (approx. €0.017) for the same quantity – less than one tenth of the price being charged by the donkey carts. So far, 15 water kiosks have been built in the settlement, serving about 300 households each. More than just water providers, some of the kiosks even offer bathroom and cooking facilities, as well as hand washing stations, making them hubs of local commerce and a lasting asset to the whole community. Following the success of the existing kiosks NWSC is now going a step further, connecting local groups of houses (‘plots’) with piped water. So far five plots have been connected, with about eight awaiting connection. The service provider has already procured a loan to install a bigger pump to increase pumping capacity to 15 cubic meters per hour (up from two cubic metres per hour) and there is potential for an initial 2,000 households to be connected with water. With 40,000 people provided with access to safe, afFordable clean water so far, the programme is proof that socially responsible commercialisation can work. Now SNV, WSUP and Vitens are upscaling the model to 10 additional low-income settlements to reach 100,000 people in 2013. For more on our work in Water, Sanitation & Hygiene, visit www. snvworld.org/WASH. JULY 2013 CONNECT #2 15 Pagina 14
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