By Patrick Njoroge and Maureen Musya (Akiba Mashinani Trust project officers)

All images: Muungano Alliance

This post is one in a series that the Muungano Alliance will publish throughout 2021 about the ongoing Mukuru Special Planning Area (SPA) process—with particular focus on the transition from planning to approval and implementation.

Each post provides an update on a specific aspect of the Mukuru SPA and reflects on challenges faced and the associated lessons we have drawn thus far from the process.

In this second post in the series, we report on the strides achieved in implementing some aspects of the Mukuru integrated development plan that relate to water and sanitation. 

Background: Mukuru’s water and sanitation situation

Living conditions in Mukuru are awful, with high population densities and dismal infrastructure and public services. Water and sanitation utilities are especially absent: the Muungano Alliance’s 2017 research found that over 100,000 families were served by only 3,863 pit latrines or poor quality flush toilets.

The Mukuru special planning area has some existing trunk water and sewerage infrastructure—the existing sewer network includes extensions of the sewer around the industrial area and Imara Daima[1]. But, largely, sewerage infrastructure is broken, lacking or grossly inadequate. In any case, few residents have access to the existing sewer system. Emptying toilets and sludge removal are done by small-scale operators who have to work in unsanitary conditions. Sludge is haphazardly disposed of into the few sewer inlets, the Ngong river or drainage ditches. Like sludge, solid waste disposal is also haphazard with poor collection, transport and disposal chains. Drainage is also inadequate, and drainage ditches and storm water gullies carry raw sewage.

Mukuru’s appalling conditions lead to acute water and vector-borne infectious diseases like diarrhoea and malaria. These days, cholera and typhoid epidemics are occurring with greater and greater frequency.

Water is sold by water vendors using illegal connections to the city mains or provided by door-to-door distributors. Compared to nearby formal residential areas, Mukuru residents are charged very high prices for water and toilet services that are often unreliable and of low quality. We call this a poverty penalty. Even where sewer and water infrastructure is in place, a major hurdle to connecting the poor to city water and sanitation services is their inability to pay connection fees, and to connect to the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) network new customers must also pay for pipes, fittings and labour. Further impediments to upgrading are a lack of planning, community mobilization or ownership relating to projects.

So, it’s not surprising that formal connection rates are dismally low in most informal settlements in Nairobi. Mukuru’s residents urgently need an efficient, affordable and accessible water and sanitation system that responds to their and their area’s unique daily needs.

Mukuru SPA and Mukuru Integrated Development Plan (MIDP)

The aim of the 2017–2020 Mukuru SPA planning process was to develop an integrated development plan (MIDP) that responds to the unique development challenges (and opportunities) faced by this area. Once complete, the MIDP guides delivery of sustainable basic social services. (You can read more about other aspects of the SPA and the wider process in our earlier SPA blogs and Muungano’s SPA project pages.)

In terms of water, sanitation and hygiene, the MIDP includes standards, practices and regulatory proposals that could be adopted by the Nairobi City County government and by other stakeholders supporting the sustainable delivery of services. It also provides models that could be used to enhance services, based on data from Mukuru and on information from various multi-stakeholder engagements.

The proposed solutions to Mukuru’s water, waste water and sanitation challenges are based on successful proven technologies. Below, we describe how they are beginning to be implemented on a pilot scale. However, the options are not exhaustive and innovation will be needed to harness new ideas and technology as these emerge.

The Mosque Road Pilot Project

This Mukuru SPA pilot project focuses on an area situated along Mosque Road, in Mukuru Kwa Reuben. It is a collaboration between civil society and local government partners: NCWSC, Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) and the Muungano Alliance (in particular Akiba Mashinani Trust and Muungano wa Wanavijiji).

The project area is roughly 4.5 acres and covers portions of two ‘segments’ (discrete neighbourhoods in the special planning area): Feed the Children and Mombasa. This area was chosen for a pilot because some water and sanitation infrastructure was already in place.

The Mosque Road pilot project aims to address the needs of 3,000 residents by providing affordable water using pre-paid water dispensers and by putting in place a ‘simplified sewer system’. It will also create opportunities to test and develop the systems and financing arrangements that will underpin the process of designing/constructing adequate, affordable water and sanitation infrastructure and services for the rest of the SPA.

The pilot project began in July 2020 with preparatory meetings between the partners. These helped build consensus on project objectives. A detailed work plan was prepared, and agreed by all partners. This was then followed by planned activities to mobilize the project area’s residents: an intensive community engagement process, door-to-door enumeration of all households, GIS mapping of all structures and water points, and finally in the design and construction of infrastructure. The process involved focus group discussions—with community leaders, local small-scale water and sanitation service providers, and women and children. Participants shared the challenges they currently face and voiced their aspirations for improved services.

Mapping and enumeration

The first step towards jointly seeking a solution was a detailed enumeration and mapping exercise to collect the data and information needed for planning and infrastructure design. Community enumerators and mappers were identified and trained. They then worked closely with professionals from the partner organisations to carry out a mapping exercise and door-to-door enumeration of all households, using a questionnaire. They further mapped all water points in the pilot area and conducted a profiling of all toilet facilities along Mosque Road. NCWSC also surveyed the area, to determine existing service levels.

All the collected data was analysed and w information generated was used to design infrastructure and guide service provision. The data revealed that Mosque Road has:

• 1075 doors in 233 structures: 965 doors to residences, 47 vacant, 19 classrooms, 13 commercial, 12 storage, 11 residential/commercial, 5 animal sheds, 3 religious facilities. Of these 233 structures, 114 had toilets (many toilets are shared between several structures).  

• 91 toilets: 75 at plot[2] level, 9 public toilets, 7 in learning institutions. Of these, 33 are pour-flush toilets connected to a sewer, 37 pour-flush toilets not connected to a sewer, 18 Fresh Life toilets (a franchise of urine-diverting dry toilets), and 3 pit latrines.

• 42 bathrooms.

Community discussions and proposals

Currently, both water and sanitation services in Mosque Road are grossly inadequate. Residents get water from water vendors, NMS vehicles and boreholes, and harvest rainwater during the rainy season. In the focus-group discussions, residents said that the water they buy is generally expensive and insufficient. Major problems included poor maintenance of water pipes, which leads to spillage and contamination, having to walk long distances to fetch water, and long queues at water points. A lot of time is spent fetching water.

During the focus group discussions, residents’ suggestions for possible solutions to their water problems included: proper water pipes and their timely maintenance; each plot and all public facilities connected to the city mains; water supplied at affordable rates; improved water storage facilities; enhanced water treatment; more boreholes drilled to supplement existing water supply.

For sanitation, residents’ suggested solutions included that: each plot have a pour flush toilet; all toilets be connected to the improved sewer; residents educated on how to use toilets properly; toilets properly maintained; sufficient security that residents can access toilets, especially at night; enough water provided to flush and clean toilets.

All stakeholders agreed that the water and sanitation challenges residents face needed to be urgently addressed, and that this project should aim for every plot to have access to clean, affordable piped water and water-borne sanitation services.

Pre-Paid Water Dispensers

The chosen design for providing water services is to install pre-paid water dispensers (PPDs). This is an alternative solution than piping water to each household, to address insufficient water coverage in Mukuru. The plan is that one PPD serve 100 households. Mosque Road, with 965 residential doors, will require 10 PPDs to serve the population. The PPD system relies on potable water supply from the existing NCWSC water distribution system in the areas adjacent to the project site. NMS will pay for all required infrastructure. Currently the residents of Mukuru spend KES 5–20 to buy 20 litres of water. Water from PPDs will be sold at 50 cents for a 20-litre jerrycan. Residents will therefore save between 90–360% of what they currently pay to access water.

Simplified Sewer System

A proposed alternative solution for Mukuru’s insufficient sewer coverage is to design and construct a ‘simplified sewer system’ (SSS) in residential areas, while a more conventional system is laid along road reserves.

The Mosque Road project’s technical team considered best practices from Brazil, Tanzania and an upcoming project in Free Area, Nakuru, before adopting the SSS design. The design was presented to senior NCWSC managers and technical personnel, and approved for the development of sewerage infrastructure in the pilot project area.

SSS is an off-site sanitation technology that removes all wastewater from the household environment. Conceptually it is the same as conventional sewerage, but with conscious efforts made to eliminate unnecessarily conservative design features and to match design standards to the local situation. Two main feature of SSS are:

• Layout—to reduce cost, simplified sewers are developed as an in-block system, rather than using an in-road system like conventional sewers. The key feature of an in-block system is that sewers are routed in private land, through either back or front yards.

• Depth and diameter—simplified sewers are laid at shallow depths, often with covers of 40mm or less, rather than the 100–150mm that is normally required for conventional sewerage. The relatively shallow depths allow small access chambers to be used rather than large, expensive manholes.

The main reasons for adopting SSS in the Mukuru SPA include:

• Vulnerable residents’ livelihoods may be affected by displacement to create way leaves for sewers

• Low public way leave area for laying sewers

• Congestion, which complicates centralised wastewater systems

• Heavy costs associated with centralised sewer systems

• Need to provide resilient and responsive sanitation solutions

Project Implementation

Infrastructure designs were completed in December 2020 and agreement reached between all stakeholders on financing obligations. NMS began constructing lateral sewers in February 2021 and this has now been completed. In the meantime, WSUP has procured the pipes and fittings for the ‘last mile’ infrastructure, now awaiting implementation. So far, all construction work has far been undertaken by Mukuru residents.

An aggressive marketing programme also commenced to:

• Inform all structure owners, so that they can construct improved toilet facilities in the plots they own, to connect to the newly constructed sewer system; and

• Target resident households along Mosque Road, to tell them how they can buy the water ATM cards they need to access water at a subsided rate from their local pre-paid water dispensers.

Lastly, a Mosque Road water and sanitation committee—using the Nyumbu Kumi model—will in time be established and will check on maintenance of existing infrastructure, liaise with the water company and deal with any grievances.

Challenges and opportunities

Some of the challenges we have experienced so far include resident hostility caused by structure demolitions to construct roads, slum fire, and resistance from people whose views were not captured because they were never available during the data collection period.

On the other hand, some of the opportunities realised in this project include the willingness of most of the residents to be part of change in the slum, and the willingness of WSUP, Nairobi Water and NMS to work together to install the SSS and water reticulation.

Lessons Learnt

There is a strong willingness by residents to connect to formal municipal services and thus move away from informal service provision (however, they may still be deterred by the high costs of developing last mile infrastructure and paying standard connection fees).



[1] Overall Water and Sanitation Assessment Report, WSE consortium of the Mukuru SPA, 2019

[2] A plot comprises about 10 households living around a courtyard