Impact Report Issue No. 11 - NRW is Key Concern of the Regulator

Kenya's Water Services Sector latest IMPACT Report No. 11 launched and published recently by the Regulator, WASREB, has sent mixed signals. On the one hand, it has reported some slight positive changes in access and Non-Revenue Water (NRW) reduction, while on the other hand, it explained that a mere 6% reduction of NRW over the past 10 years poses a big concern to the regulator. This is because, despite huge investment by water utilities in NRW reduction, the huge losses still present big risks to the progressive realisation of Kenya's Vision 2030 and SDG 6 targets. Key worries of the regulator are that: 

• Over 60% of the NRW is attributed to water theft and poor water accounting, which are issues within g water utility managers' control and do not require huge investments to address;
• Financial sustainability of the water services sector is at risk;
• Slower movement towards increasing access to safe drinking water will require more capital investment- which is a burden to taxpayers; and
• Kenya’s diminishing freshwater resources will get even more stressed.