NAIROBI, (The Southern African Times) – Kenya plans to leverage private investments in order to achieve universal water coverage by the year 2030, a government official said on Thursday.
Andrew Tuimur, chief administrative secretary with Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation told journalists in Nairobi that a financing gap exists because of the inadequacy of public and donor resources with current sector funding estimated at less than 40 percent of the sector requirements.
“As a country, there are efforts to create the right incentives to attract private investment into areas such as efficient water use technologies, wastewater recycling and water storage and conservation solutions,” Tuimur said.
Data from the ministry of water indicates that about 60 percent of Kenya’s population has access to improved water services, while access to improved sanitation was estimated at about 40 percent.
Tuimur revealed that Kenya’s water and sanitation services indicators are among the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa and have not changed much in the last five years, despite impressive economic growth over the past decade and the country’s transition to a lower-middle-income status.
He added that the water sector thus needs to explore alternative modes of financing water and sanitation development, to fill in the gap and enhance sustainability.
“Some of the financing options that may be available for the sector include both public and private funds, as well as, use of public-private partnerships (PPP) mechanisms,” he noted.
The Kenyan official said that the government will support initiatives that encourage water service providers to become borrowers in the Kenyan commercial market for the financing of their water and sanitation infrastructure.
