With an estimated 30% of Kenya’s national population in either primary or secondary school, access to a safe and reliable water service in schools is central to the achievement of Kenya’s Vision 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda on both basic education and water services. This briefing note outlines policy implications of an empirical study estimating the cost to guarantee safe and reliable daily drinking water services to all schools in Kitui County, building on experience and insights from FundiFix, a professionalized water service maintenance model operating in Kenya.
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Guaranteeing safe drinking water services for public schools in Kenya: A costed professional service delivery model for Kitui County
This working paper offers a detailed analysis of the costs and requirements to deliver safe and reliable water services in Kitui County schools, based on a county-wide audit and financial information from a professionalized water service delivery model operating in the county. The authors use this to develop an estimate of the cost to guarantee safe and reliable daily drinking water services for all of Kenya’s public schools, and provide insights into new funding models and policy developments to facilitate this important goal.
REACH Story of Change: Building drought resilience in Ethiopian river basins
Through the BRIGHT programme, REACH partner WLRC will build upon and scale up its research on water resources management, climate science, water quality and inequalities in Ethiopia to benefit an estimated 2.5 million people directly, and over 50 million people indirectly. This Story of Change reflects on the partnerships and processes that have facilitated this success for WLRC and for Ethiopia.
Can solar water kiosks generate sustainable revenue streams for rural water services?
This study explores how upgrading water supply infrastructure influences user behaviour in rural Mali by modelling changes in revenue and volumetric water use when handpumps are upgraded to solar kiosks. Average monthly revenue is four times higher with solar kiosks, whilst payment collections increased and remained stable after upgrading handpumps to solar kiosks.
REACH Story of Change: Monitoring and modelling river water quality to protect Dhaka’s river system
This Story of Change describes the establishment of an advanced river water quality modelling system in Dhaka. The system allows decisionmakers to assess the potential impacts of current activities and future growth on river health, and to explore strategies for mitigation such as improved industrial wastewater management and new sewage treatment plants. Ready Made Garment Industry actors have engaged with the model to understand and respond to pollution from their factories.
Flood adaptation and mitigation in the Awash Basin: Responding to new climate patterns
This study explores the physical changes in rainfall and landscapes leading to major flood events in the Awash Basin, Ethiopia. Climate Change is creating new flood regimes and reshaping the interaction of flooding with rapidly changing communities, heightening risk to vulnerable communities within the basin. Therefore, this study examines the interaction of physical phenomena with societal and economic dynamics across the basin’s upper, middle and lower reaches. Focusing on the extreme wet season in 2020, the study’s multi-dimensional perspective includes analysis of hydroclimatic variables at the basin level including global drivers, flood characterization in selected catchments, and understanding of affected communities at sub-catchment levels.
GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis model for utility water demand: The case of Lodwar Municipality, Turkana County, Kenya
Water shortage affects every continent and is listed as one of the largest global risks hence the need for proper management of water resources. Municipalities and cities worldwide are struggling to meet increasing demand for water amid rapid urbanization, increasing population growth, industrial development and expansion of human activities. This study used Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to develop a decision support model that can be applied to improve the utility water demand management for the Lodwar Municipality in Turkana Kenya. The results can help water utility managers and decision makers highlight suitable areas for network expansion as well as infrastructure management planning within the municipality.
REACH Story of Change: Redefining the connections between WASH and gender – Measuring women’s empowerment in WASH to support policy and practice
This REACH Story of Change presents the development of the Empowerment in WASH Index (EWI), a novel survey-based tool to measure agency, voice and empowerment in a WASH context. The EWI has been used in six countries to assess and evaluate women’s empowerment, showing its potential to inform policy and practice in the WASH sector by providing more robust evidence on how to integrate gender into intervention design, monitoring and evaluation.
REACH Story of Change: Improving water security in Ethiopia through integrated use of surface and groundwater resources
As one of Africa’s fastest growing cities, Addis Ababa’s demand for water has sky-rocketed over recent decades due to population growth, increased per capita consumption, rural to urban migration, and growing water demand from industry. Water supplies across the city are already struggling to meet demand, with regularly interruptions to water services exacerbating inequities. This Story of Change explores the range of methodologies that REACH has applied to examine the implications of climate and population growth for Addis Ababa’s water supply. Of particular focus is a first-of-its-kind dynamic water allocation model which integrates both surface and groundwater resources.
Four billion people lack safe water
It is estimated that four billion people worldwide lack safe drinking water – double the number of people estimated in 2020. The new estimate by Esther Greenwood and colleagues published in Science Magazine is accompanied by a Perspective piece by REACH Director Rob Hope.
