Kenya

Kenya’s Water Challenges

Without urgent action, the gap between water demand and supply in Kenya is projected to reach 30% by 2030. Climate change, deforestation, unsustainable consumption behaviors, and catchment degradation are worsening the impacts of droughts and floods in the country, resulting in increased water stress and insecurity for agricultural, industrial, and domestic users. Planned development targets will require more water to meet the needs of energy, agriculture, and manufacturing; and competition for water is increasing. Additionally, water loss remains a major challenge in urban areas, with commercial and physical losses accounting for about 42% of total water.

Approach and Results

2030 WRG began supporting multi-stakeholder collaboration in Kenya in 2014, starting with a hydro-economic analysis that identified a possible water supply and demand gap of 30% by 2030. This analysis created a sense of urgency that helped bring stakeholders together. Consultations resulted in the creation of a national Multi-Stakeholder Platform comprising a governing board and three thematic focus areas: agricultural water management, industrial water management, and urban water management.

Under the Agricultural Water Management workstream, a variety of projects aim to help smallholder farmers transition to efficient irrigation systems, including a Climate-Smart Irrigation Facility, an Irrigation Financing Facility (IFF), and a Farmer-Led Irrigation Development (FLID) action-research project.

The Kenya Industrial Water Alliance (KIWA) is developing an online platform to improve reporting, data collection, and benchmarking of industrial water use. The goal is to promote investment in water management and pollution prevention by facilitating access to finance and technological solutions within manufacturing industries.

The Urban Water Management workstream supports technical and financial innovations to reduce urban water losses and expand water access and treatment. In addition, 2030 WRG Kenya is collaborating with local governments to develop a trade waste effluent mechanism based on the “polluter pays principle” (3P).

Under the Kenya Water and Sanitation Development Project, the World Bank will provide funding for detailed assessments of utilities for potential performance-based contracts (PBCs). This will include developing documents for procuring the most suitable private sector partner for each utility.

Partners

Currently, a total of 100 partners are involved in the Kenya 2030 WRG Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP). The Kenya 2030 WRG governing board is co-chaired by Hon. Simon Chelugui, Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Water and Sanitation and Vimal Shah, Chair of BIDCO Africa. The Kenya MSP is evenly balanced with 7 government partners, 5 representing the private sector, and 5 civil society organizations.

Resources
Multi-Stakeholder Platform Documents
Short Films

The 2030 WRG FY23 Annual Report is available now. Learn more about key highlights of the year.