Abstract:
One of the key challenges to the developing countri
es is increasing access to safe water supply to the
rapidly growing urban population, consequently, bil
lions of dollars have been invested in pursuit of t
he
goal of “universal service” and yet the realization
of that goal is still elusive. Based on cross sect
ional
survey and purposive sampling of 367 households, th
is paper examines the level of accessibility to
privatized water services in Kisumu Municipality. T
he Kenyan study shows that the proportion of
households with access to piped water supply within
a distance of 200 m is 77.1%, only 65.6% of the
basic water requirements of the residents are met a
nd that only 25% of the households access the
minimum recommended 50 l/c/d. The low income househ
olds and low levels of investment in water
infrastructure are related to reduced access to wat
er services. Expanded access to safe water services
may only be realized if upfront investment is made
on rehabilitation and extension of existing water
network in addition to upgrading of treatment plant
, thus reducing the cost of maintenance and
unaccounted for water and making better use of econ
omies of scale. New water ethics and demand-
based service delivery should also be adopted for b
etter management and services.
