Principal Secretary of State Department of Water & Sanitation, Dr Paul Ronoh, launched the Non-Revenue Water (NRW) Standards to reduce water losses in the country. Non-Revenue Water is the resulting difference between the amount of water put into the distribution system and the amount of water billed to consumers.
The national level of NRW losses in Kenya currently stands at 45%. This means that about half of the treated water produced from water utilities is lost out of the 100% of treated water produced from water utilities. These losses affect the water utility by denying it a significant portion of the revenue it should earn from selling water. The newly launched standards are meant to provide a basis to address the current challenges of NRW management in Kenya and suggest practical approaches to reduce water loss.
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The PS said the Cost of Starting a Water Refilling Business in Kenya as he encouraged stakeholders to implement the standards.
The guideline touches on strategic planning and coordination of NRW activities, institutionalizing NRW management, use of new technology (GIS), Universal billing and NRW monitoring through District Metered Areas (DMAs) and zoning, selective application of NRW reduction methods such as metering, Leak detections, pressure management, night flow measurements, use of ultra-sonic flow meters and discusses the importance of Cost-Benefit Analysis when determining the kind of Non-Revenue intervention measures to undertake.
“The NRW guidelines aims at providing a wide perspective of NRW reduction and Management in the water utilities across the country. These guidelines aim at raising awareness on key issues surrounding NRW including the magnitude of the problem that we face as a country. The effective utilization of the standards will result in significant reduction of NRW which will contribute to the progressive realization to the right to water and sanitation as envisaged under the bill of rights in the constitution of Kenya (CoK-2010),” Dr Ronoh added.
He called on the water service providers and key stakeholders to develop working mechanisms that will collectively help manage and reduce the NRW to prevent taxpayers’ money from going to waste.
Dr Ronoh lauded Ministry officials, JICA Experts, the Water Service Regulatory Board (WASREB), Kenya Water Institute (KEWI) and the Water Providers Association (WASPA), who were involved in the formulation of the Non-Revenue Water Management Standards.
Present at the event were Water Secretary Eng. SAO Alima, Secretary of Administration Mr Stephen Kihara, Acting CEO WASREB, Dr Julius Itunga, CEO, KEWI, Dr Solomon Letangule, Chairperson, WASPA, Dr Eng. Moses Kinya and CEO, Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Eng. Nahashon Muguna.
State Department for Water and Sanitation