Business

Kenya among countries to benefit in Sh979 million AfDB project

African Development Bank headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

By Ibrahim Omar | Thursday, January 25, 2024

Kenya is one of four countries likely to be the first beneficiaries of an African Development Bank-funded (AfDB) project.

"Kenya is one of four countries likely to be the first beneficiaries of an African Development Bank-funded (AfDB) project aimed at improving access to clean water for urban poor communities.

The AfDB has identified Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, and Sierra Leone as four out of five countries that could be selected to initiate the operations of the African Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative (AUSII) project this year.

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This project, co-funded by the AfDB and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to support business innovations providing 'robust, affordable, and financially and environmentally sustainable inclusive sanitation services for urban dwellers, with a focus on the urban poor.'

The project is set to launch for the first time this year with an initial grant of $6 million (Sh979 million). According to the AfDB, the target is to select five countries primarily based on their readiness for a smooth rollout of AUSII operational plans, with initial focus countries possibly including Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, and Sierra Leone.

The project will enable local firms that develop innovative solutions to help Kenya’s urban poor access clean water to secure financing to scale up their operations, as such financing is often hard to come by from commercial lenders. This initiative is timely as millions of Kenyans living in urban areas, especially major cities such as Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu, struggle to access clean water.

The population surge in these cities in recent years has placed significant strain on their water infrastructure, which has failed to keep up with the increased demand for water. Furthermore, many areas in major towns lack adequate sewerage infrastructure, leading to open defecation in many of these areas. During the rainy seasons, these areas also become inundated with dirty sewage water, exposing residents to diseases.

Kenyans living in urban areas rely on water supplied by public water service providers (WSPs) as well as private water vendors who distribute the commodity through bowsers and containers. However, the lack of clean water disproportionately affects the urban poor, most of whom reside in slums without piped water connections. According to the Water Services Regulatory Board (Wasreb), only 62 percent of Kenya’s population live in areas where they can access water.

The country’s WSPs also lose about 45 percent of the water they supply due to leakages, leading to an annual revenue loss of approximately Sh11.2 billion. Consequently, these entities continue to face financial challenges, hindering their capacity to provide reliable clean water. The administration of President William Ruto, however, has pledged to achieve universal access to water by 2030 by attracting private capital to the sector, akin to the reforms that introduced independent power producers (IPPs) in the electricity sector."