The Water Services Regulator Board, Wasreb, reports a mild growth in the water services sector both in urban and rural areas.  In the analysis published in the fourth issue of Impact Report, indications are that the sector has recorded some growth despite the numerous challenges in form of an increasing population and rapid urbanisation. This growth is, however, mild with demand for water continuing to exceed supply by huge proportions.

Trends published in Impact 4 show that in the period 2009/10, the urban sector recorded a mild improvement in water coverage from 46 to 47 per cent while sanitation coverage improved from 47 to 67 per cent.

While more people have access to safe drinking water and sanitation than ever before, the levels of access remain far behind the MDG targets of reducing by half the number of people without access to safe water.  The levels are also below the national target defined in the National Water Services Strategy of achieving 80 per cent water coverage in the urban settings by 2015.

Non-revenue Water declined from 43 to 45 per cent, while Hours of Supply decreased from 15 to 14.  Considering the 2009/10 average tariff of Ksh 53 per cubic metre, the amount of water lost due to NRW in monetary terms can be estimated at Kshs 8.6 billion. This represents approximately a third of the annual sector development budget for 2009/10.

Urban Water coverage improved from 46 per cent in 2008/9 to 47 per cent in 2009/10.  For the Very Large and Large WSPs, water coverage improved from 52%  in 2008/9 to 53% in 2009/10. (confirm and harmonise).  Rural Water coverage improved from 30 per cent in 2008/9 to 37 per cent in 2009/10. 
This, however, is still below the minimum acceptable benchmark of 80 per cent. The increase in water coverage can be attributed to increased investments in infrastructure, supported by the government and development partners.

Experience shows that distribution of the available water is skewed, with the poor and those living in informal settlements getting less of the share, while paying more for it. The scenario needs to be changed by improving coverage through use of low-cost technologies like water kiosks.

The average urban sanitation coverage, which includes septic tanks and pit-latrines, improved by 12 percentage points from 47% in 2008/09 to 59% in 2009/10. Sewerage coverage remains low at 15 % pointing at the difficulty of attracting funds for sewerage and waste water treatment systems.
The average rural sanitation coverage, which includes onsite sanitation solutions such as pit-latrines, improved by 14 percentage points from 66% in 2008/09 to 80% in 2009/10.

The relatively low sewerage coverage in urban areas shows that on-site sanitation solutions play a crucial role in filling the gap in the short to medium-run, especially in high density LIAs.

Inadequate sanitation coverage contributes to the pollution of water resources.Therefore, more targeted resource allocation and adoption of low cost onsite systems is required especially in areas of high density where public health risks are most significant.

This refers to the difference between water produced and water billed to consumers.
The average urban Non Revenue Water rose from 43 per cent to 45 per cent.Average rural Non Revenue Water improved from 71 per cent to 61 per cent.   Sector performance in NRW is far from meeting the set benchmark of 25 per cent.
Wasreb recommends that WSBs and WSPs keenly focus measures and strategies to reduce NRW which is a threat to financial sustainability.
Metering Ratio
Metering is a prerequisite in order to charge consumers according to what they actually consume. It is an important tool for controlling NRW especially the commercial losses and for regulating water consumption. Without being able to measure actual consumption, effective management becomes impossible.
The average urban metering ratio remained at 82 per cent in 2009/10. Average rural metering ratio went down slightly from 59to58 per cent in 2009/10. This, however, is still below the acceptable sector benchmark of 95 per cent.
More effort is required for a commercially sustainable water services sector that makes efficient use of available resources. Through provision of earmarked tariff adjustments, Wasreb is reinforcing WSPs efforts towards 100% metering.

This indicates the hours consumers are able to get water per day. During the reporting period, the average urban hours of supply reduced from 15 hrs per day to 14 hours per day while that of rural WSPs improved from 14 hrs per day to 15 hours per day.
To address the decline in service hours, WSPs should put in place measures to curb increasing levels of NRW and also match expansion in coverage with increase in production.

For urban WSPs, the average compliance in terms of number of tests carried out and those within the norm for residual chlorine shows a decline from 90% and 97% to 84% and 95 % respectively.

For rural WSPs, the average compliance in terms of number of tests carried out and those within the norm for residual chlorine shows an improvement from 83% and 92% to 96% and 95 % respectively.

WSPs are obliged to adhere to the DWQ Monitoring Guideline which entails elaborate sampling programmes and timely submission of monthly and annual water quality reports.

The national urban average for dormant connections improved from 33% in 2008/09 to 31% in 2009/10 while national rural average for dormant connections improved from 48% in 2008/09 to 43% in 2009/10.

Revenue Collection Efficiency is a measure of the effectiveness of revenue management system that a WSP has put in place, the willingness of customers to pay consequently reflecting on customer satisfaction and amount of resources available to WSP.
Revenue collection efficiency for both urban and rural WSPs dropped from 84 per cent to 82 per cent.

This is a measure of a WSP’s short term sustainability.
On average, urban WSPs’ O&M cost coverage improved from 98% in 2008/09 to 109% in 2009/10 while that of rural WSPs’ improved from 70% in 2008/09 to 92% in 2009/10
An indication of sustainability for a WSP would be the attainment of the benchmark O&M Cost Coverage greater than 150%. However, while approving tariffs, Wasreb ensures that WSPs reach the second level of sustainability by covering O&M costs as well as investments costs.
Staffing
The indicator dropped from 7 to 8 staff per 1000 connections for urban WSPs. While this is still within acceptable sector benchmark of 8 staff per1000 connections, it points in the wrong direction.
The indicator dropped from 12 to 11 staff per 1000 connections for rural WSPs. This is an improvement and it should be noted that different sector benchmarks apply depending on the category of WSP and the number of towns it covers.
WSPs need to comply with the Wasreb criteria for appointment of WSP staff when employing people to ensure that a high level of skills and capacity is built in the WSPs.
Wasreb congratulates the best performing WSPs for their efforts, which is a crucial contribution to the country’s development. The worst performers, as well as the WSPs which have not submitted data, are warned that Wasreb will continue to expose their underperformance and their resistance to transparency and accountability to stakeholders and the public.
Wasreb will consider revoking Service Provision Agreements (SPAs) of WSPs who either fail to provide information or do not make effort to improve their performance.

Although WSBs have slightly improved over time, their performance is generally wanting.  They display a poor level of information disclosure on important sector aspects like rural water supply and sanitation, investiment and financial plans, investments undertaken and subsidies received. For instance data on investments, subsidies and schemes operated by WSBs through District Water Officers is not submitted to Wasreb.

This makes it challenging to effectively regulate the sector for informed decision-making.

The water services sector has seen a significant increase in investments in recent years. This is reflected in positive trends in sector investments as well as improved access to urban water and sanitation. The negative trend that could be observed before the reforms has clearly been reversed.  However, numerous challenges remain:

• Corporate governance remains a major challenge in all sector institutions.
• Many of the sector institutions are still unsustainable and unviable.
• Insufficient planning for investments and financing by WSBs leads to ineffective investments and less value for money.
• Rural water and sanitation is still poor. Sufficient, accurate data and information systems on the same is still scanty.
• Sanitation / Sewerage Services are inadequate yet the population growing. Encroachment on land for sewerage facilities and poor planning are rampant.
• Information submission and quality for Impact is still wanting. There can be no regulation without information.

Wasreb requests sector players to rally their efforts to ensure that  these challenges are overcome.