NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 8 – Water and Sanitation Principal Secretary Kipronoh Ronoh Friday launched the Non-Revenue Water (NRW) Management Standards to be applicable in all the Water Service Providers across the country.
The history of NRW in Ministry dates back in 2009 when the unit was officially formed to deal with water losses in terms of technological, commercial and lack of adequate training for staff directly involved with NRW.Kenya is one of the few countries in Africa to have launched the Non-Revenue Water Management Standards.
There is an urgent need for all the WSPs to meet and implement the standards and operationalize in order to serve the citizens with water provision as outlined in the constitution 2010 and Water Act 2016.
Today, NRW is as high as 45% compared to Japan which is at 10%. In order for the country to manage NRW to acceptable standards, there is urgent need to come up with strategies among them: Speed and quality of repair once a leak has been detected, active leakage control mechanisms, asset management and pressure management as both short term and long term measures.
The PS Ronoh applauded Meru and Nyeri Water companies for managing the issue of NRW with the technical support from JICA.
In one of the cities of Japan, the NRW has been achieved to as low as 1.5%.
The JICA team is in Kenya to train the WSPs on best practices to manage NRW.
While launching the NRW Standards, the PS ordered the following agencies to comply with the standards in order to bring down NRW from the current 45% to 5% within the next 3 years:KEWI to strengthen training programs for NRW and provide at least 3 certified staff to be employed by over the 88 registered WSPs by WASPA.WASREB to take charge and ensure implementation of the standards as well as come up with a working mechanism within 3 months.
WASREB is expected to come up with drastic review of equipment and technology to be used by the county government through Smart meters.
WRA is to ensure that utilization of bulk water is monitored within 1 year for compliance.
WSPs to urgently create a NRW section and deploy the best employees with high standards of integrity to manage the unit’s affairs.
The PS was flanked by the Water Secretary Eng SAO Alima EBS, Secretary Administration Stephen Kihara, CEO NCWSC Eng Nahashon Muguna, CEO KEWI Dr. Solomon Letangule, CEO WRA Mohamed Shurie, CEO WASREB Dr. Julius Itunga and JICA Kenya Representative Akiko Kawata among other senior dignatories.
