Nairobi City Water And Sewerage Company Case Solution

The informal housing schemes resulted in large slum areas, and in some cases, industrialized areas of the city put further pressure on the company by increasing the water demand significantly. 42% of water was lost because of the aforementioned issues. The water reforms in Kenya’s water sector initiated commercialization in the sector to improvise the infrastructure and attract new investments. The purpose was to promote public-private partnerships in the sector, which is one of the methods used by developing countries to resolve issues in the sector (World bank, 2019). The method was successful as it does attract new investments and funding from international agencies.

2. Is Water treated as a scarce resource in Kenya? Will the proposed tariff increases change this attitude? Who are the key stakeholders identified in this case with respect to the proposed tariff increases. What are their interests? What conflicts can you identify in their interests? What are the key risks in the policy process as NCWSC seeks to increase tariffs?

The population of Kenya is increasing, and as with the case with many developing nations, the resources are limited. So water was considered a sacred resource to meet the growing population’s domestic and industrial demands. The tariff increase was designed to penalize the excess consumption and wastage of water as it suggests a marginal increase in the rate of the tariff with increased consumption. This price structure is normally used to prevent low-income families from tariff hike problems (United States Environmental protection agency, 2020). The main stakeholders during the process were water utility companies, regulators, and government authorities.

The interests of all these stakeholders were different; the water utility companies would be in favor of the increased tariffs to recover their costs and generate revenues. The government authorities have political interest that might stop them from openly supporting the tariff hikes as it can lead to a backlash from the public, especially low-income groups. The regulator, on the other hand, announces to increase the tariffs without any personal involvement as it is neither the beneficiary of revenues nor the political favours. These challenges are common and impose a policy-making dilemma for water consumption in many developing countries (Grafton, et al., 2020). The regulator can involve the citizens in the process by increasing their participation through a voluntary force. This could solve the problems with alignment issues as citizens are better informed about the ground-level issues of the neighbourhood.

3. How does the problem of Non Water Revenue arise in Kenya? What do you think of the measures proposed by NCWSC to reduce this? Who are the key stakeholders identified in this case with respect to the proposed reduction in non-water revenue? What are their interests? What conflicts can you identify in their interests? What are the key risks in the policy process as NCWSC seeks to reduce non-Revenue Water

The non-revenue water challenge was emerged because of the lower-income group’s inability and willingness to pay for the water. The dire need for water resulted in the informal channels of water supply, including cartels and theft, and misreporting. Non-revenue water is considered an important dimension of water resource management all over the world and faces more or less the same challenges (Farok, 2017). The key stakeholders, in this case, are the Athi water board commission, which was first to track the amount and quantify it to provide a figure of revenue loss. French agency of development was another stakeholder that financed the findings and recommendations to form a separate department for that. The other parties involved in the process were Seurica, which provided the technical support to run the pilot projects. The factors’ affecting the NWR is physical, technical, and managerial in nature and requires a multifaceted approach. The large supply of water results in more NWR, but lower supply leads to unmet demand (Washali, et al., 2019). The management is very technical in nature.

The local residents have also been involved in the process; the conflict of interest was between the authorities and the consumers who want to pay little to no amount for their consumption. The utility company also played a role in the problem as local residents were hired and trained to lay pipes in the slum area, but after the formation of the NRW board, the entire process changed, and they were cut off and had their concerns. The donors were another group that was the providers of the funds for a proper water management system.