Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water, Sanitation May -June 2014 Vol.9 No.3 | Page 38

SUWASA News

SUWASA News

The kiosks model is based on an innovative design
developed and promoted by the Water Services Trust
Fund of Kenya. They were installed as part of a
regional partnership facilitated by the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID), which worked
hand-in-hand with the water sector in Ethiopia. The
kiosk model encourages local private sector management
and ensures that the community is fully involved in
selecting the kiosk manager and providing security for
the systems.
With the 14 new facilities, residents now only need five
minutes to fetch water, a major improvement over the 30
minutes required before the project. Also, the cost for 20
liters of water is only 25 cents in Ethiopian birr, about
US$0.013. This rate is five times lower than the amount
residents used to pay private vendors for the same
amount of water.

The new water facilities are an important component
of USAID’s two-year partnership with the Hawassa
Town Water Supply and Sewerage Services Enterprise,
the Regional Water Resources Bureau and Hawassa’s
city administration. The collaboration aimed to help
introduce commercial practices to Hawassa’s utility,
allowing it to provide efficient and sustainable water
service.
The partnership, established in February 2011, led to
new accounting and financial reporting practices that
increased the Hawassa utility’s efficiency and improved
record keeping. The efforts also led to new tariffs that
have provided the basis for the utility’s financial health.
These changes are expected to transform the
performance of the utility and benefit Meselech and her
fellow residents by offering improved, sustained and
affordable water services.

K-Rep Bank to construct household water connections
in low-income areas.
Since Karugendo started work with EWASCO, the
company’s water production has grown from 2,000
cubic meters per day to 28,000. Recently, the Tana Water
Services Board named EWASCO the most innovative

The bank is backed by a guarantee from the U.S. Agency
for International Development’s (USAID) Development
Credit Authority, and the project is supported by an Aid
on Delivery grant from the Kenyan Water Services Trust
Fund (WSTF), funded by the German development bank
KfW.
“The commercial financing unlocks our capacity to
expand services, and the Aid on Delivery subsidy from
WSTF allows us to do twice as much as would have been
possible before,” Karugendo said.
Harim Karugendo, Managing Director of EWASCO, shows the map of the
pipeline investment project that will bring water to 75,000 residents of Embu,
Kenya.

“SUWASA was vital in linking us to financing partners,
assessing market demand and increasing our visibility,”
he added.

An innovative financing deal, facilitated by USAID’s
Sustainable Water and Sanitation in Africa (SUWASA),
is enabling a local water utility to access finance to install
23 kilometers of pipeline and provide water to more than
75,000 low-income residents in Embu, Kenya.

The project is just one of EWASCO’s innovative
approaches to improving water and sanitation services.
Karugendo has also introduced supplier financing,
allowing the company to expand services and increase
revenues. Additionally, EWASCO worked with the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to build a
new water treatment facility and partnered with Kenya’s

Embu Water and Sanitation Company (EWASCO),
under the leadership of its Managing Director Harim
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Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • June 2014

However, for Karugendo, financing is not the only goal.
“The measure of success for EWASCO is not how
much profit is made, but rather how many people have
access to water and sanitation in Embu,” he said.

Regulatory Authority Endorsed by Ugandan Water Sector Officials
move the legislative process to establish the regulatory
authority forward. Reed said that USAID would remain
supportive of the agenda.
As proposed, the new authority would establish a clear
and open process for setting tariffs. It would also allow
for better consumer protection and would improve the
ability to monitor and report on the sector’s progress.
The new regulatory framework would encourage
participation from a variety of players including private
water companies. It would also promote competition
between providers and ensure adherence to national
water and sanitation policy.

Kenya Water Sector Innovator Leads the Way with Commercial
Financing
Karugendo, secured US$945,000 in commercial financing
from Housing Finance for the work.

water company in the region.

Strength in Collaboration: From left - Axel Klaphake, Country Director for
GIZ, Hon Betty Bigombe, Uganda’s Minister of State for Water, Leslie Reed,
USAID’s Uganda Mission Director and Dennis Mwanza, SUWASA Chief of
Party, in Kampala, Uganda.

A proposal to establish an autonomous water and
sewerage regulatory authority in Uganda received
enthusiastic support at a recent meeting of highlevel officials. The meeting, held on March 4, 2014
in Kampala, was attended by 75 water and sanitation
sector officials including Betty Bigombe, Uganda’s
Minister of State for Water, USAID’s Uganda Mission
Director Leslie Reed, and Axel Klaphake, the country
director for German development agency GIZ.
The proposal was developed by the Ugandan
government, the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) and GIZ. It called for the
establishment of the Uganda Water and Sewerage
Regulatory Authority, an autonomous organization
aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the country’s
water and sewerage sector.
In her remarks opening the meeting, Reed said the new
regulatory framework would result in transparent and
predictable processes. She underscored the need to

In her keynote address at the meeting, Bigombe
called the authority a critical step toward achieving
the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of access
to water for all