dc.description.abstract | Kenya is a water scarce country, and this impacts on the social and
economic development goals. This study seeks to develop a Water
Poverty Index to assess water resources at the county level. The Water
Poverty Index is an inter-disciplinary tool that links physical availability
of water with socio-economic factors that impact on access. The index
was computed for a sample of four counties, namely Kiambu, Murang’a,
Nairobi and Nyandarua. The findings of the study show that water availability does not
necessarily translate into high levels of access at the county level.
The two counties that score high on the water availability component
score the lowest on access to water and sanitation. Nairobi county has
the highest scores in terms of access due to external resources from
Nyandarua and Murang’a. Thus, more needs to be done in these counties
to bridge the gap between water resource availability and access to
water and sanitation. In addition, all the counties in the study need to
improve on access to water and sanitation to reach the targets of the
National Water Services Strategy. The study provides several policy recommendations to improve the water poverty situation in the counties. Resource-rich counties such
as Nyandarua and Murang’a, can trade in water resources with
counties such as Nairobi to generate money for the development and
conservation of their own water resources. | en |