NEWS in brief
Around Africa
viable, effective and financially attractive enterprise.”
In addition, sanitation awareness and social marketing
activities will be organised within the community and
farmers’ associations to increase the demand for improved
toilets and sanitation services and compost from waste, as a
way to stimulate the consumer market. Training will also be
provided to municipal institutions with a focus on sanitation
planning to ensure the adoption of appropriate procedures,
methodologies and tools to ensure the sustainability of the
new sanitation system.
This project will help the municipality of Arba Minch
address urgent sanitation needs at a time when its basic
infrastructure and service levels are still largely inadequate,
leaving more than half of the population without access to
improved toilet facilities. Arba Minch - with a population of
around 100,000 people - is among the fastest-growing towns
of Ethiopia. The project will help increase water supply
and sanitation service provision in the area, streamline
interventions, build capacity from both public and private
stakeholders, and meet critical infrastructure gaps.
Kenya
Water Point ‘Bank Machines’ Boost Kenya Slums
basic requirement -- clean water.
Around the world
people use bank
machines to access
cash: but in the
Kenyan
capital’s
crowded
slums,
people now use
similar machines to
access an even more
In a bid to boost access to clean water, four water dispensing
machines have been installed in Nairobi slums that operate
like cash machines -- with customers able to buy affordable
water using smart cards.
It has cut costs dramatically, and is helping improve health,
residents say.
Previously people living in Nairobi’s cramped slums
struggled to get clean water cheaply.
Without water pipes or plumbing in the tin-hut districts,
residents resorted to buying water from sellers who dragged
handcarts loaded with jerry cans or oil drums into the
narrow streets.
That water was often dirty, sometimes taken illegally from
broken pipes.
But the new machines, installed by the government-run
Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company (NWSC), allow
4
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • July - August 2015
people to purchase water directly -- and far more cheaply
-- than before.
For the government, the machines allow them to make a
profit, as water was previously stolen from them, with
people cracking pipes to siphon off water to sell. For the
people of the slums, the clean water provided is cheaper
than that sold before.
“The project is commercially viable,” NWSC chief Philip
Gichuki said. “Illegal water services are going to die off
because residents are assured of good water quality.”
The new machines have made water up to six times cheaper.
Previously, people would buy 20 litres of water (5 US
gallons) in a jerry can from a street seller for three shillings,
often from unreliable sources.
That price -- the equivalent of 3 US pennies -- was difficult
for many slum residents who are unemployed or who only
occasionally find work for $2 a day.