The drive to ‘climate-proof’ Kenya’s water and sanitation sector is on

By Evans Ongwae

Kenya is integrating climate resilience in its water and sanitation sector to enhance sustainability and access to services. This will boost the country’s drive to deliver universal access to water and sanitation services by 2030.

Water Sector Trust Fund’s Manager for Water Resources and Climate Change, Eng Rose Nyikuri, reveals this, saying several strategies can climate-proof the sector.

As Kenya is water-stressed, people need to protect catchment areas, use this commodity more efficiently, increase storage, and reduce losses along pipelines, she urges. She also calls for tree planting “to ensure more rainfall in the long-term as well as carbon absorption as a mitigation against climate change”.

Eng Nyikuri adds that young people too, should be involved in community water projects because they are key stakeholders.

The Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation, together with Water Sector Trust Fund (WaterFund), are hosting an investor’s conference at KICC, Nairobi, starting today (March 6) and ending on March 8, 2024. The Water and Sanitation Investors Conference (WASIC) 2024 seeks to showcase the vast investment opportunities in the sector.

The overall theme for this event is “Accelerating Investments for Sustainable Access to Water and Sanitation for All”, and one of the thematic areas that delegates will discuss is titled “Safeguarding the Future: Catchment to Tap and Climate Change Resilience”.

WaterFund, a State Corporation, assists in financing the provision of water and sanitation services in underserved areas of Kenya. Climate action is core in the Fund’s approach, in collaboration with target County Governments and communities.

WaterFund’s Principal Programme Officer for Climate Change, Ms Ann Nabangala, says that as a consequence of climate change, water resources are shrinking. Rainfall is more erratic and the country recently experienced its worst drought in 40 years that affected 23 counties.

Ms Nabangala says WaterFund looks forward to robust discussions at the conference on ways to attract climate finance and other investments to water and sanitation initiatives. She points out that the National Water and Sanitation Strategy emphasises the need for low-carbon and climate-resilient development. Among other concerns, it proposes the promotion of clean and efficient energy for water supply and sanitation.

To address and mitigate against climate change risks in projects, WaterFund has adopted climate-proofing approaches in the overall project cycle. Adoption of renewable energy has proven to be a feasible investment option of addressing sustainability concerns in water projects. Renewable energy includes solar, wind, gravity schemes, biogas, energy saving jikos (cookstoves).

WaterFund has financed a number of climate-resilient projects. One of them is the Upper Tana Natural Resources Management Programme, co-funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Kenya, and covering Embu, Nyeri, Meru, Tharaka-Nithi, Murang’a and Kirinyaga counties. The other is Ending Drought Emergency-Climate Proofed Infrastructure for Improved Water Supply and Sanitation in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) Programme, funded by the European Union (EU) and the Government of Kenya at both national and county levels. A third example is Water and Livelihood Project (WLP), supported by the Danish International Development Agency (Danida), to enhance water resources management and improve access to water and sanitation by host and refugee communities in Kakuma, Turkana County.

Meanwhile, the Country Fund Portfolio Manager of Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (SHF), Ms Aline Pawele, asserts that Kenya is poised to become a sanitation powerhouse. She says the political leadership positions the country as a strong example regionally and globally, and has laid the foundation for attaining universal access to sanitation services.

“The key things that shift the paradigm on the path towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 6.2 are in place,” Ms Pawele points out. She adds: “The country’s pathway and steps to building the sector’s institutional and regulatory frameworks, enhancing public financing, and creating an enabling environment, are incredibly encouraging and promising steps to attract public and private financing. The country has innovative vehicles to attract and deploy blended financing for the sector. Investors and donors should inject more finances into the country’s sanitation sector. That is not just the right thing to do; it is a smart investment.”

Ms Pawele notes that the private sector in Kenya can play a major role in bridging the financing gap in the country’s water and sanitation sector. She says the route to sustainability is a market-based approach to the financing of the sector, with private firms expected to tap opportunities along the sanitation and hygiene value chain.

Kenya has the potential to turn things around because of two things: An evolving sanitation economy and the political will to make it the engine of universal access and sustainable development more broadly. This presents massive investment opportunities for the private sector.

Ms Pawele explains: “The market-based approach views sanitation as an ecosystem with economic opportunities along its entire value chain. For example, building a toilet, emptying and transporting the faecal waste, and treating faecal sludge present tremendous social and economic gains, becoming a gateway to sustainable development. That is what the sanitation economy is about.”

A study by SHF found that the value of Kenya’s sanitation economy was about $1.7 billion in 2022. This value is projected to rise to $2.8 billion by 2030 when the country is projected to attain universal access to water and sanitation.

SHF is a UN Fund focusing on market-based approaches to deliver access to sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health (SDG 6.2). It accompanies forward-looking governments, businesses, entrepreneurs and funders in activating the sanitation economy, and is delighted to partner with Kenya on its efforts, says Ms Pawele.

SHF has been working in Kenya for more than two years, and has invested over 3.5 million dollars in programmatic grants and technical assistance to the Kenyan Government to accelerate universal access to sanitation services. SHF works in five priority towns, namely Malindi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret, and Nairobi. The grant is implemented by Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), under the oversight of the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation.

[email protected]