A water bowser supplies clean water along Kimathi Street, Nairobi.
More than five million people living in Nairobi County and who depend on the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company (NWSC) for clean water face a difficult future as the cost of this essential commodity is expected to increase and distabilise their budgets.
This is due to an announcement by the company, which stated that the water tariffs would increase by between 15 and 30 percent.
This means that for a family or a household that has been paying about Sh500 for an average of 10,000 litres per month will be forced to pay about Sh748 for the same amount, which is an increase of Sh248.
The announcement comes amid the high cost of living which has denied some of the people in the informal settlement the opportunity to access clean piped water, where cartels who now control every drop of water in such areas reign supreme.
In the latest update about the tariff change, the company’s Acting Managing Director, Martin Nang’ole, said the move has been informed by the increasing operating cost of the newly launched 5-year comprehensive strategic plan.
The Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Limited.
While speaking to Nation, Mr Nang’ole said that the plan is set to increase water supply, reduce system losses, as well as expanding the sewerage system coverage.
“Implementation of the strategic plan will see the capital city’s five million residents get safe and reliable water supply, and higher sewerage system coverage even in the face of rapid growth in demand,” Mr Nang’ole said.
He stated that the expansion plan will involve the building of 180 km of new water pipelines and the construction of 100km of new sewer lines. Customers in informal settlements will get a simplified sewer system.
Also, the Acting MD said that the continuous growth of the population in the city, with some areas such as South B, South C, Kilimani, Kileleshwa, Ngumba, among others, having transformed into high-density developments to accommodate the population.
City residents are staring at an increase in water prices after the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company applied to the regulator to raise tariffs citing rising costs in delivering the commodity to residents.
“The cost of water treatment, the sewerage infrastructure, electricity, pipe materials and routine maintenance has increased significantly since the last tariff review in 2023. Without an updated tariff structure, the pace of essential upgrades, loss reduction efforts and service reliability improvements will be severely affected.”
Even as he assured locals about the need to generate more revenue, which will be useful in the improvement of the infrastructure, the residents are waiting to see the impact of the Northern Collector Tunnel.
The 11.8km tunnel, which was financed by the French Development Agency at a cost of Sh8.5 billion in 2015, is already in operation, but its impact is yet to be felt by the residents.
In his recent state of the county address, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja said that the tunnel has been able to increase the capacity of water by 140 million litres per day.
“There is an increased supply in many of our wards. New pipelines in Lang’ata has ended the years of intermittent supply, the residents receive water more frequently,” the governor said, adding that the additional water supply has been one of the achievements in his administration.
A water bowser supplies clean water along Kimathi Street, Nairobi.
This also comes amid the county's agreement to collaborate with the national government to improve service delivery to the people.
The national government will be responsible for supplying water to residents and improving the sewer system.
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