Existing Solutions

Drinking-water, Sanitation, Regulation, Formalized Service Provision, Monitoring, Utility Information System, Indicator, Data, Human Right to Water and Sanitation, Kenya

technical

The Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB), as Regulator, is mandated to ensure that consumers are protected and have access to efficient, adequate, affordable and sustainable services. For that purpose, WASREB, inter alia, monitors, evaluates and reports on the performance of Water Service Providers (WSPs) – utilities – and Water Services Boards (WSBs) – asset holders – in providing adequate water services to the consumer, using the Water Regulation Information System (WARIS) as its main data source. The latter is a database application software which helps WASREB to collect up-to-date technical, financial, personnel, commercial and general information on WSPs and WSBs, allowing for effective regulatory decision-making as well as public reporting by the Regulator on sector performance via the annual IMPACT Report. More broadly, it helps to inform policy making, planning and implementation towards improving service levels and the extending formal services to all Kenyans.

WASREB, mainly on basis of WARIS, monitors a number of direct and proxy indicators which correspond to the various criteria of the human right to water and sanitation and thereby show progress towards realization of same.

1. (Physical) Accessibility:  (a) “water coverage” measures access by relating the estimated number of people with access to active domestic connections (average household size), yard taps and public stand posts/kiosks (design criteria), operated by a regulated service provider, to the total population living in the service area of the provider;

(b) “sanitation coverage” measures access by relating the estimated number of people with access to an improved sanitation facility (average household size) to the total population living in the service area of the provider.

1. Availability/Reliability: (a) “hours of supply” measures availability of drinking-water by providing a weighted average of the daily service hours per scheme; (b) “average per capita consumption” (per domestic connection, yard tap, public stand posts/kiosk) measures availability by relating the total volume billed at the different types of outlets with the estimated total number of people served by each type of outlet.
2. Quality (Safety): “DWQ” measures compliance of providers with the prescribed number of WQ tests (residual chlorine and bacteriological) and compliance of the test results with the respective national DW standards.
3. Affordability:  application of the regulated tariff and determining the costs (a) per 20 l jerry can and (b) per m³ at the lifeline block (including fixed charges).
4. Acceptability: availability and application of technical design standards for public water outlets and sanitation facilities.
5. Non-discrimination: water and sanitation coverage reported for all urban Low-Income Areas (LIAs) within overall service area of a formal provider/ country wide; possible additional indicator: water/sanitation coverage in urban LIAs in relation to water/sanitation coverage overall (ratio)
6. Accountability (& Transparency): measured as (a) compliance with data submission requirements for WARIS (especially regarding indicators on fulfilment of consumer rights); (b) BoD expenditure in relation to total turnover (categorized according to different sizes of entities); (c) availability of information at all levels (website, annual report etc.). 
7. Participation & Empowerment: measured as (a) availability of institutionalised consumer groups/representation and formalized exchange with service provider; (b) composition of utilities’ BoDs (gender, profession, interest groups etc.)
8. Sustainability: measured as (a) number of registered/licensed utilities (legal entitites) and total water and sanitation coverage; (b) “O&M cost coverage” (at ≥ 150 %).

Kenya – countrywide monitoring of all licensed Water Service Providers and Water Services Boards.

WARIS was implemented by WASREB with technical support from GIZ and in coordination with WSPs and WSBs. Anchoring at WASREB and implementation through the sector institutional structure (WASREB, WSBs, WSPs) ensures the sustainability of the solution.

The recognition of the human right to water and sanitation in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 (along with the declaration of access to safe drinking-water and sanitation as a human right by the UN GA in July 2010 and the ensuing affirmation through the UN HRC) has had direct implications for policy making, planning and implementation in Kenya’s water services sector. It is now a constitutional duty for state actors to act and report on the respect, fulfilment and protection of the right. Informal service provision is not tolerable anymore, as it lacks accountability, is not sustainable and does not meet minimum service standards (quality, reliability and price) to fulfil human rights criteria. At the same time, formal service providers have to be taken to task by the Regulator, WASREB, to operate efficiently and viably in the interest of consumers and show how the money they spend contributes to the improvement and extension of formalized services to all Kenyans.

WASREB, mainly by using the existing WARIS indicators (direct and proxies) which correspond to the human right to water and sanitation criteria, is in a position to (1) effectively monitor performance towards the progressive realization of the human right to water and sanitation at national as well as at WSB and WSP level, (2) target regulatory decision making towards more equitable access and (3) hold WSBs and WSPs to account by publishing annual performance reports, inter alia, on their efforts to realize the right. WARIS is the key tool for WASREB’s monitoring and is fully internalized by the organisation. It is therefore expected that it will continue to facilitate monitoring of rights through the Regulator in the long run.

Ministry of Water & Irrigation: Improved policy formulation, decision-making and implementation (esp. pro-poor strategies, fulfilment of rights of consumers); enhanced efficiency in and targeting of resource allocation (equitable access)

Public/Consumers: Improved accessibility of data and information for progress/MDG/HR monitoring; increased awareness and exertion of public control (transparency & accountability)

WASREB: regular publishing of annual performance report IMPACT; use of data for key regulatory decisions: targeting of regulatory interventions (e.g. public reporting, tariff negotiations) toward improvement/extension of services particularly for more equitable access

WSPs & WSBs: gradual improvement of data management and submission and reliability of submitted data; better and more efficient reporting in terms of quantity and quality;  reporting on realization of rights; increased service coverage in under- or non-served areas and improved quality of service (equitable access)

Water Sector Regulators, Utilities, Ministries, Financing Institutions

Where water sector reforms (decentralisation, transparency and accountability, efficient allocation of resources and poverty orientation) are implemented, more professional management of water services leads to a need and demand for reliable data on regular basis (≤ annually); for policy making, planning, and implementation.

Water Sector Regulators or other institutions responsible for infrastructure, service delivery and financing (Utilities, Ministries, Financing Institutions) can play a powerful role in monitoring the realization of consumer rights in water services, where comprehensive utility information systems are available. This is due to the fact that the latter provide a rich array of data regarding the essential criteria of the human right to water and sanitation.

The often insufficient disaggregation of data in terms of different urban realities (equitable access) can be addressed by complementing Utility Information Systems with pro-poor baseline studies, which, inter alia, provide information on the number of LIAs in a country, the number of people living in LIAs and the water and sanitation coverage in LIAs.

Once this data is available, Utility Information Systems can be adjusted to include data specifically on un(der)served urban Low-Income Areas (LIAs) and utilities can be obliged to specifically report on their performance in serving these areas. WASREB has recently adapted WARIS to include a Pro-poor Reporting Module and is currently collecting data from the utilities.

Other Utility Information Systems, supported by GIZ, e. g. exist in Zambia and Tanzania.

Water Services Regulatory Board, Nairobi, Kenya

E-mail:  info@wasreb.go.ke

(1)  Provide indicators/proxies for  access, availability, quality, affordability & sustainability

(2)  Provide regularly updated  (at least annually)  & spatial information

(3)  Provide comprehensive data for policy making, planning, implementation

(4)  Anchored at and owned by responsible sector institution

Limitations of Utility Information Systems/their indicators:

(1)  Mainly apply to piped systems, i.e. there is good data availability for the urban setting but limited data availability for the rural setting (where no piped system and different management approach).

(2)  Limited data availability and poor reliability where responsibilities are shared between different sectors (water, public health, education) and actors (utilities, municipality etc.) as the case with sanitation; applies to physical access (“Sanitation coverage”) and quality/safety criteria (sludge management/effluent monitoring).

(3)  Difficult to monitor acceptability (where this does not relate to colour, odour and taste of water); i.e. regarding technical design standards, it is difficult for the Regulator to differentiate between those public water outlets and sanitation facilities which fulfil minimum design standards (acceptable ) and those that do not (not-acceptable).