Breaking Barriers in Water and Sanitation Service Delivery to Informal Settlements: Case Study of the Mukuru Model

Mukuru is one of the largest slums in Nairobi, Kenya with a population of over 250,000. For many years residents of Mukuru, amongst the poorest people in Nairobi, were forced to pay high prices for low-quality intermittent water supplies. Residents sometimes paid as much as KES 500 per cubic meter, over five times the average price paid by official customers of Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC). Water was supplied by hundreds of water vendors or small water enterprises (SWE) most of whom accessed NCWSC supplies through illegal connections.

In 2007 the Integrated Approach to Reducing Poverty (IARP) project was launched, with the aim of improving services in three Mukuru villages. The aim of the project was to break the barriers that prevent delivery of water and sanitation services to informal settlements. This paper describes the strategies used to break the adversarial relationship between the utility service provider and communities and documents the outcomes in terms of changes in the level of service delivery, the level of service provided and the sustainability of institutional relationships.