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[HGG01-P04] Post-reform water supply in Machakos City, Kenya: a structural equation modelling approach
Keywords:domestic water, commercialisation, rights to water, structural equation modelling, Kenya
Since the mid-1980s, structural adjustment policies have deregulated and commercialised the use and management of natural resources with a neoliberal emphasis on free market principles. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the water sector reforms have sometimes led to corporatisation of the local governmental water supply. While its impact on residents’ water use has relatively been less examined, there has been another, potentially opposite, direction of development intervention in water supply, that is, an emphasis on the human rights to water by the rights-based approach (RBA) to social development since the mid-1990s. In Kenya, this has been expressed in the 2010 Constitution, in some cases translated into a free water supply by the county government in the devolution process.
It is therefore important to focus on this confluence of the two contrasting developmental processes in Kenya and question whether paid water is in a competitive or complementary relationship with the free water policy initiated by the local government. The existing literature on borehole development has focused on individual water supply points, has questioned users’ willingness to pay and socio-economic sustainability of water projects. Taking “the interaction among water sources” (Ueda 2019, 2020) into consideration, which largely remains under-researched, the present study investigates the relationship among socio-economic characteristics of respondent households and their use of paid and free water sources based on a questionnaire survey in an intermediate urban centre located in a semi-arid area in Kenya, Machakos City.
In Machakos City, the study selected Majengo and Kariobangi (low-rent residential quarters) in the city centre, and Eastleigh (a residential quarter with relatively high-rent properties) from surrounding newly developed areas. In May to August 2017, it identified communal water kiosks reselling piped water of Machakos Water and Sewage Company (MAWASCO, incorporated in 2005) to end users, County Government boreholes (free of charge), private water supply stations, and roadside supply points of water vendors. A questionnaire survey was conducted targeting households of 225 users of water points in the three residential quarters and investigated in socio-economic characteristics of their households and access to and commercialisation of water, the water price of each source in addition to the characteristics of water usage.
It is necessary to pay attention to the water supply corporatisation and the role of the communal water-resale kiosks which supply MAWASCO water to low-income groups, when considering the impact of the water sector reform in Kenya under the Water Act of 2002/16 on water access of the people. MAWASCO is entrusting communal water kiosks and water resale to self-help groups registered with the government and intends to ensure access to water for low-income groups. However, in both the centre and the new residential area, the study found cases of water re-resale by individuals who monopolised resale profits, or by individuals who sold water in a small quantity to households lacking time and labour force for water fetching. When the water supply was cut off, self-help groups made a bulk purchase from a private water tanker to fill the kiosk water tank and the resale fee was nearly tripled. Added to this is the free water of the County boreholes, which the residents use depending on water availability and purpose.
With these settings of urban water supply and use, the present study investigates the relationship among socio-economic characteristics of the respondent households and their water use combining paid and free water sources, employing structural equation modelling and path analyses.
References
Ueda, G. (2019). Cost Sharing and Free Water Policy in Semi-Arid Rural Kenya. Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2019, Makuhari, May 26-30, 2019.
Ueda, G. (2020). Sub-Saharan post-neoliberalism? Paid and free water supplu in Machakos County, Kenya. Japan Geoscience Union, American Geophysical Union Joint Meeting 2020, Vertual, July 12-16, 2020.
It is therefore important to focus on this confluence of the two contrasting developmental processes in Kenya and question whether paid water is in a competitive or complementary relationship with the free water policy initiated by the local government. The existing literature on borehole development has focused on individual water supply points, has questioned users’ willingness to pay and socio-economic sustainability of water projects. Taking “the interaction among water sources” (Ueda 2019, 2020) into consideration, which largely remains under-researched, the present study investigates the relationship among socio-economic characteristics of respondent households and their use of paid and free water sources based on a questionnaire survey in an intermediate urban centre located in a semi-arid area in Kenya, Machakos City.
In Machakos City, the study selected Majengo and Kariobangi (low-rent residential quarters) in the city centre, and Eastleigh (a residential quarter with relatively high-rent properties) from surrounding newly developed areas. In May to August 2017, it identified communal water kiosks reselling piped water of Machakos Water and Sewage Company (MAWASCO, incorporated in 2005) to end users, County Government boreholes (free of charge), private water supply stations, and roadside supply points of water vendors. A questionnaire survey was conducted targeting households of 225 users of water points in the three residential quarters and investigated in socio-economic characteristics of their households and access to and commercialisation of water, the water price of each source in addition to the characteristics of water usage.
It is necessary to pay attention to the water supply corporatisation and the role of the communal water-resale kiosks which supply MAWASCO water to low-income groups, when considering the impact of the water sector reform in Kenya under the Water Act of 2002/16 on water access of the people. MAWASCO is entrusting communal water kiosks and water resale to self-help groups registered with the government and intends to ensure access to water for low-income groups. However, in both the centre and the new residential area, the study found cases of water re-resale by individuals who monopolised resale profits, or by individuals who sold water in a small quantity to households lacking time and labour force for water fetching. When the water supply was cut off, self-help groups made a bulk purchase from a private water tanker to fill the kiosk water tank and the resale fee was nearly tripled. Added to this is the free water of the County boreholes, which the residents use depending on water availability and purpose.
With these settings of urban water supply and use, the present study investigates the relationship among socio-economic characteristics of the respondent households and their water use combining paid and free water sources, employing structural equation modelling and path analyses.
References
Ueda, G. (2019). Cost Sharing and Free Water Policy in Semi-Arid Rural Kenya. Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2019, Makuhari, May 26-30, 2019.
Ueda, G. (2020). Sub-Saharan post-neoliberalism? Paid and free water supplu in Machakos County, Kenya. Japan Geoscience Union, American Geophysical Union Joint Meeting 2020, Vertual, July 12-16, 2020.