Scarce, costly and uncertain: water access in Kibera

Carrying water on Kibera's railroad. Source: St. Aloysius Gonzaga High School Journalism Club

Kibera is not only Nairobi’s largest slum, but Africa’s largest slum. Now home to an estimated one million people, this settlement in the heart of Kenya’s capital began life as a home for Sudanese soldiers who had fought for the British army in WWII. Inherited upon independence in 1962, its questionable legitimacy has contributed to conditions of tremendous water scarcity and uncertainty.

Whilst residents once relied upon a nearby dam as their primary water source, today private vendors dominate. Locals face water costs that rival rents, waiting times that swallow up whole mornings and shortages that prevent basic washing and cooking practices. 

Much of the above mirrors the findings of Thompson et al. (2000) discussed in my last post. What’s new in Crow and Odaba’s (2009) article is a detailed analysis of the context. Through ethnographic research and investigative interviews the authors are able to dig deep under the surface of Kibera’s water quandary.

Beginning with Nairobi’s well documented water rationing programme, they explain how vendors in Kibera are supplied by a network of pipes, each of which is served for a different 3 days of the week. In doing so they introduce the role of corruption, and the way in which certain vendors are able to increase their supplies through illicit access to multiple pipes. 

Continuing on this theme of corruption they describe the role of cartels in the private water supply and the commonplace bribery of utility staff. Plumbers working for the Nairobi Water Company candidly discussed their willingness to selectively supply particularly groups of vendors whilst denying access to others, for the right price. 

At the consumer end the authors noted that wealth was a constraint on storage for Kibera residents. Whilst every respondent they spoke to chose to store water in their own homes, those that were unable to afford jerrycans or other suitable vessels had limited capacities. 

Crow and Odaba’s (2009) article reveals much that a regional analysis cannot. It has added corruption, cartel behaviour and storage capacity to my list of access constraints, to name but a few. In my next blog I am going to address a topic I have only so far skirted over, health and sanitation.