Municipal Water Planning and Management Implications: A Case of Thika

Municipality in Kenya

Njagi Felix Mwiathi.

Moi University
School of Environmental Studies
Department of Environmental Monitoring, Planning and Management
Email: fmnjagi2001@yahoo.com
Mobile No: +254 722 973447
Eldoret Kenya

ABSTRACT

Kenya is classified by the United Nations as a ‘chronically water scarce country’

(UNESCO, 2003). The natural endowment of the freshwater is highly limited, fragile,
and threatened. The annual water available per capital as at 2003 stood at 647m3 and was
projected to fall to 235m3 by 2025. This is far below 1000m3 per capita set as the
benchmark for water scarcity. Natural resource management has been a major issue for
scientists, planners and politicians since the economy and long-term wealth are largely
based on the exploitation of non-renewable resources although other factors such as
human knowledge and labour are to a certain extent complementary. Today, it is
increasingly accepted that environmental and renewable resources are at even greater
risk. The water management strategies for overcoming water deficit experienced by the
increasing population involve building management capacities and employing the right
technologies which includes efficient water use control and conservation. Thika is one of
the satellite towns to Nairobi city. It is both an urban and a rural set up given that much of
the surrounding land is agricultural where demand for water has been on the increase due
to the influx of people from the neighbouring towns and urban expansion. Therefore
proper planning and management o water resources in thika are Vital in order to achieve
the desired development. This paper highlights the role of the Municipality in planning
and managing of water resources in order to meet the increasing residential demand for
water. The paper also highlights the special issues involved in residential water
management in Thika. It also gives the policy and institutional implications in planning
and management of water within the municipality.

Key Words: Management, Planning, Water use, Reforms,

TABLE OF CONTENT
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................................1
KEY WORDS: MANAGEMENT, PLANNING, WATER USE, REFORMS,..........................................1
1.0 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................1
1.1 UNDERSTANDING THE RESIDENTIAL WATER IN THIKA’S WATER USE.............................2
1.2 UNDERSTANDING THE TRENDS IN GLOBAL MUNICIPAL WATER INDUSTRY..................3
1.3 INCREASING REGULATORY INTERVENTION..............................................................................4
1.4 MANAGING WATER DEMAND...........................................................................................................5
1.4.1 AUGMENTING SUPPLY...............................................................................................................................6
1.4.2 INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT..................................................................................................................9
1.4.3 PRIVATIZATION......................................................................................................................................10
1.5 MANAGING THIKA’S TREND – PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS..........10
1.6 SPECIAL ISSUES...................................................................................................................................11
1.6.1 WATER CONCEPT:.................................................................................................................................11
1.6.2 INSTITUTIONAL CAPABILITY:....................................................................................................................11
1.6.3 WATER DEMAND MANAGEMENT: ...........................................................................................................13
1.7 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS.......................................................................................................14
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................20

i
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

FIGURE 1: SURFACE WATER WITHDRAWAL IN KENYA BY SECTOR..........................................8

TABLE 1: INTERNATIONAL WATER PRICE.........................................................................................5
TABLE 2: CONSERVATION MEASURES AND POSSIBLE WATER REDUCTION
CONSERVATION MEASURE PERCENT REDUCTION IN USE..........................................................6

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1.0..........................................................................................................INTRODUCTION

Residential water use, even domestic water use shares a very small portion of total water
withdrawals for all their uses as the global statistics of the freshwater use shown. Water
used in household and urban area, however, has been meriting general attentions for
many reasons. To provide the water for these purposes not only involves huge financial
commitment to ensure water supply with high quality and reliability to consumer, the
effluent being extensively treated with minimized environmental impact, but also is given
a high priority by policy makers in Kenya. As is stipulated in the Water Act 2002 the
importance of domestic water is clearly defined as the guideline for national water supply
which states that the first priority should be given to providing water for people for use in
their homes and urban activities.

In Kenya and in particular Thika town open door policy and economic reform are
changing dramatically the municipal water industry with the increasing role of cities in
the economy. On one hand, rapid economic growth greatly improves living standard,
diversifies water demand pattern and thus, booms the per capita water consumption. On
the other hand, increasing water pollution and wasteful use are offsetting the already
insufficient water resource leading to a continuous water shortage prevailing in daily
urban life in Thika.

Regarding its important role and development potentiality, urban residential water and
water in other urban activities can never be overestimated. As a matter of the fact,
residential use is the most rapidly growing sector in municipal water supply in both Thika
town and Kenya as a whole in recent years. The effluent from this sector also shares the
equal percentage with other urban sewage in total. In Thika for example, domestic
wastewater accounted for 75 percent of total sewage water by 2006 (Thika District
Development Plan, 2006)

The worst thing is that almost all the effluent are discharged into natural water bodies
without any complete treatment, which is the major pollutant to urban drinking water

1
sources. Therefore, a good residential water service can not be guaranteed without a solid
municipal water system

This paper begins with the discussion of residential and domestic water in entire Thika
Municipality water use. What the role does municipal water utility has? Following this
understanding is the review of major international and national trends in municipal water
industry particularly from the perspective of lesson and technology. With the reference of
these trends, special issues in Kenyan context which are crucial for Thika municipal
water planning and management reform are discussed. Finally, implications for planning
and managing Thika’s water have been spelled out as the future reform recommendations
to municipal water industry of Thika towards a sustainable future.

1.1 UNDERSTANDING THE RESIDENTIAL WATER IN THIKA’S WATER

USE

The supply of residential water in Thika quite different from what Western municipal
water planners might imagine of it. The municipal water system is fragmented in its
management. With single water plants and a daily production capacity of 24,000 cubic
meters by 2006 statistics, Thika Water Company produces only about 65% percent of all
the piped water supply with a daily. The limited share of municipal water utility in
Thika’s water use seriously hampers its many water conservation initiatives. For many
years, municipal role in managing Thika’s water use has been functioned in a partial
capacity.

This can be one of the important reasons, except for the fragmented management, that the
total water demand keeps increasing while the painstaking water conservation move
started as early as 1990’s. On the other hand, inadequate production also prevented
municipal water utilities from achieving certain scale of economy and resulted in a
general financial shortage prevailing among utilities. Any demand management in this
situation means a directly decrease in utility’s revenue even with a rapid increase in

2
user’s fee in recent years. That is why the water saving and efficiency as well as
wastewater treatment technologies can not find their markets.
This limited role of municipal utility in Thika’s water use also makes any sustainable
planning and management impossible. Future development of residential water use
driven by the continuous urbanization process will not be guaranteed. Without increasing
its share of municipal water utility in water use, many of the quality control standards for
residential water can not be applied in the whole town. The reliability, quality and safety
of Thika’s drinking water as a whole will be compromised. Without a robust municipal
water system, the sustainable water resource development of Thika municipality will be
the utopia

1.2 UNDERSTANDING THE TRENDS IN GLOBAL MUNICIPAL WATER

INDUSTRY

Worldwide practice in municipal water supply and management illustrates that improving
living standard and accessibility to water contribute to the ever-increasing demand for
municipal water. Meanwhile, the increasing cost of supply, scarcity of untapped source of
surface water, limitation of groundwater because of the deleting resource and water
contamination, as well as the growing concerning on environmental issues lead many
countries and water utilities to explore alternatives to manage municipal water system.
The vicissitude of water industry in the past fifty years manifests certain trends which can
be of great directives for further reform of municipal water planning and management of
Thika so as to ensure a reliable and sustainable residential water supply as well as to deal
efficiently with the possible water problems in future. (Grigg, 1999).

Good global picture of five-stage water provision in recent fifty years with the reference
to the changing world economic climate: the 1950’s-1960’s global economic growth,
modernization and state capitalism; the 1970’s redistribution with growth; Mid 1970’s to
late 1970’s basic need approach; the 1980’s free market economics and the 1990’s
onwards economic crisis and privatization (Acher,1997). In fact, the past fifty years
witness the most radical changes in water industry. Water has evolved from a concept of

3
basic human requirement for survival to a commodity subject to demand and supply rule.
Growing world population with higher living standard and the increasing frequency of
drought conditions in many parts of the world generate even greater impact on our living
environment, finally put water issue on the world political agenda. Increasing demand
and declining resource drive water utilities to explore approaches other than the
traditional ones to meet water needs with fewer resources, less ecological disruption and
less capital commitment. Many trends emerge from this adjustment toward a more
efficient and sustainable use of water resources, well protection of environment and more
cost-benefit efficiency of the water industry. The following texts summarize the major
ones that are relevant to the water resource management in Thika

1.3 INCREASING REGULATORY INTERVENTION

Clean water is not cheap and unlimited anymore. Every urban activity is directly or
indirectly water-using in nature (Odoyo, 1999). Policy for urban water supply, thus, is
gaining a strong and important position in municipal policy and planning system.
Governments at different levels are greatly involved in water supply and waste water
service than ever before not only through direct financial involvement but through
increasing regulatory interventions.

Enactment of the Water Act 2002 in Kenya brought the tremendous institutional reform to
the water industry. The concept of water management by hydrological boundary or
catchment basins has led to the reduction of the national water authorities to only ten.
The Water Act in Kenya that was established further strengthened the concept of water
management based on catchment area as the cornerstone. Global experience confirms that
in order to protect water resource and to achieve the efficient water use, systematic
enforcement efforts in forms of legislation and regulations are indispensable.

4
1.4 MANAGING WATER DEMAND

Drought condition and changing nature of water demand in many parts of the world have
shown water utilities and professionals the potentiality of water demand management
through both conservation and the improvement of system efficiency. Research in the
past three decades in water demand management especially through policy instruments
such as pricing have also laid the solid foundation for current managerial applications.
Water demand is no longer unbridled. To some extent, the growing trend can be well
curbed with a good combination of policy and technical instruments.

In Europe, where per capita water use is traditionally low, the important value of water
resource has already been clearly signalized by the continuous increasing of water fee in
recent years too. Today the water tariff in European countries is among the highest in the
world (Mitchell, 1990) as illustrated in the table below. Water conservation effect in
Thika is not as appealing as that in the States. But it is still gaining popularity among
countries because of its less capital involvement and risk, easiness to be implemented.
Table 1: International Water Price.

Country Water Prices in $/M3

Germany 1.91
Denmark 1.64
Belgium 1.54
Netherlands 1.25
France 1.23
United Kingdom 1.18
Italy 0.78
Finland 0.69
Ireland 0.63
Sweden 0.58
Spain 0.57
U.S.A 0.51
Australia 0.50
South Africa 0.40
Source: Extracted from the Executive Summary of the World Water Development Report.
Water tech online, 2001.

5
Table 2: Conservation Measures and Possible Water Reduction Conservation

Measure Percent Reduction in Use

Conservation Measures Percentage Reduction

Metering Up To 25%
Leak Repair Nearly 9%
Water Saving Devices At least 10%
Water Use Restriction 10-20%
Water Reuse Up to 25%

Source Thika Water and Sewerage Company Records

One should note that
 Metering is not a conservation measure per se. It is the first step toward any water
conservation efforts.
 Conservation-oriented rate structure, which is generally classified as: uniform
commodity rates, flat seasonal rates, inverted-block rates and excess-use rates,
implemented in conjunction with an active conservation program may
significantly reduce water use.
 Making of water conservation initiative an even more pragmatic alternative for
more and more water utilities, both publicly and privately owned, to substantially
reduce water demand without altering lifestyle.

1.4.1 Augmenting Supply

While the extension of system capacity continues to be of great importance in most of

water utilities in the world, the growing economic, political and environmental problems

associated with this approach, the more and more stringent environmental standards as

well as much costlier conventional ways to augment supply have led to a search for

alternatives to balance supply and demand. Among all these non-conventional ways such

6
as increasing system efficiency, reducing or controlling system demand, wastewater

renovations are the environmental sound alternatives to augment supply. In many

countries, water quality standards have been developed governing the discharge of

wastewater into the environment. Wastewater, in this context, includes sewage effluent,

storm water runoff, and industrial discharges. The necessity to protect the natural

environment from wastewater-related pollution has led to much improved treatment

techniques. Extending these technologies to the treatment of wastewater was a logical

extension of this protection and augmentation process (Kwonyike, 2004).

The most important concept behind wastewater reuse is the idea of ‘recycling’. In fact
within the hydrological cycle, nature is engaging in a process of continuous water reuse
too. In many parts of the world, inadvertent and unplanned wastewater reuse is already
not a new concept with the increasing water pollution.

Wastewater reuse can be categorized into potable and non-potable uses according to its
purpose of usage. Most of the planned reuse is for non-potable purposes. The earliest
non-potable use can be dated back to the sewage farming in Bombay, India, as early as
1877, and, in Delhi, from 1913 (Kebaya,2000). In modern times, the most intensive use
of wastewater for irrigation has been made in Israel. Other non-potable uses which are
widely practiced in many parts of world are industrial processes not involving food or
drugs such as cooling, creation of recreational lakes, landscaping, and limited domestic
use (IETC 2000). Because agricultural water use accounts for majority of the water
withdrawals in the Kenya’s freshwater use, water reuse for agricultural purpose has the
widest implications in water resource planning and management as shown in the figure
below.

7
Figure 1: Surface Water Withdrawal in Kenya by Sector

Source: UNEP Grid 2006

In urban context, when treated effluent is not an accepted source of potable supply, a
separated system for its distribution is required. These dual system concepts survive quite
well on the fact that only very small potion of municipal water used to be of drinking
quality, for example in the U.S, this water is less than 1 percent of all municipal supply.
The use of the dual system can be in such purposes including fire fighting, sanitary
flushing, street cleaning, or irrigation of ornamental gardens or lawns. Potable reuse can
be accomplished into three ways: direct potable reuse, planned indirect reuse and
groundwater recharge (Seckler et.al 1999). Most of these types of reuses are experimental
in nature and usually under the extreme situations.

The feasibility of wastewater reuse ultimately depends on the cost of recycled or

reclaimed water relative to alternative supplies of potable water, and on public acceptance
of the reclaimed water. Costs of effluent treatment vary widely according to location and
level of treatment. The degree of public acceptance also varies widely depending on
water availability, religious and cultural beliefs, and previous experience with the reuse of
wastewater. Wastewater for reuse must be adequately treated, biologically and
chemically, to ensure the public health and environmental safety.

8
Cost-benefit analysis of many non-potable reuse studies (Johnson 1971, Culp 1986, Ma
1997) confirms that wastewater reuse is cheaper comparing with long distance water
transfer. Normally, its capital investment is equal to that of transporting water from 30 to
60 kilometres afar. It is also economic than sea water desalinization. For example,
according to Culp’s estimation (1986), if all the municipal wastewater in the United
States can be reused, the cost will be only one dollar per capita per month.

1.4.2 Institutional Arrangement

Institutional aspect has been understood in the past decades as the crucial prerequisite to
solve municipal water supply and management. Water issues are all aggravated by a
general weakness among the institutions dealing with water affairs. It is widely
recognized that the serious economic and technical problems associated with balancing
supply and demand can not be solved without first paying attention to the institutional
context of water management (Griggs, 1999). Traditionally, municipal water was
managed separately by different local managerial units not according to natural
hydrological divisions. The management in this style usually can not deal with many
problems that are intra-region in nature such as wastewater discharge at the upper reach
of a river which will finally affect the water quality of the water use at the lower reach of
the same river. Under the current Water Act 2002 in Kenya six water basins were
established. Each authority was based on hydrological boundaries and assumed
responsibility within those boundaries for the planning, design, construction, operation,
finance, and ownership of facilities for water resources development; provision of sewage
and treatment of wastewater and their disposal; restoration and maintenance of the quality
of the nation’s water; the use of waters for recreation and the enhancement of amenity
values; flood prevention and land drainage and fisheries and navigation in inland waters.”
(Rose, 1999).

Regional arrangement of water management does not necessarily call for the physical
interconnection of water facilities but rather call for their joint management. Today, basin
based water management is the foundation for many water policies. Even more broadly

9
based approach and institutional arrangement that integrates water, wastewater and storm
water service at a basin level is becoming well accepted management in region suffering
from a deficit in water resources.

1.4.3 Privatization
The provision of the basic urban infrastructure service such as water supply, road, sewers
public housing falls into the dichotomy between the developed and developing countries.
Industrial revolution in Kenya and especially Thika Town has led to the dramatic change
of demand for infrastructure service with the introduction of new technologies such as
flush toilet. Moreover, prosperous economy made the infrastructure service affordable to
most of urban households. In the developing countries, since 1970’s, the provision of
infrastructure service is mainly the responsibility of the public sector. In front of the rapid
urban growth and varied demand, however, many public provision of basic infrastructure
service in most of the developing countries become both inadequate and ineffective.

1.5 MANAGING THIKA’S TREND – PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

IMPLICATIONS

National economic policies and changing nature of municipal water demand resulting
from rapid urbanization in recent decades have greatly altered the context of municipal
water planning and management. The traditional supply-dominated logic in municipal
water system seems insufficient in front of Thika’s accelerated water scarcity both in
terms of quantity, especially during the dry years, and in quality due to unbridled water
pollution from untreated wastewater. However, despite the recent reforms in water
management promoted by Ministry of Water and Irrigation in Kenya, and advance in
water planning such as the consensus on water transfer, maintaining a sustainable
groundwater source, Thika municipal water utilities have not well prepared to handle
water shortage and water pollution in the long term (Rose, 1999).

10
1.6 SPECIAL ISSUES

The review of major trends in water industry provides useful insights into how a
reformed municipal water system might be established in Thika; Kenya. In fact most of
the specific problems concerning with municipal Water Planning and Management in
Thika are also prevailing in Kenya in general under a transitional economy. Those issues
are crucial for future development of municipal water industry and should be clarified as
the directives in further planning and management reform.

1.6.1 Water Concept:

Water has long been considered as a renewable natural resource and the basic
requirement as well in Kenya especially after independence in 1963’s water became a
real ‘public good’ and seems unlimited. In the natural hydrological cycle, however, the
amount of the water that can be renewed is limited. If only water consumption is within
natural renewal capacity, water is a renewable natural resource.

The present wide spread water shortage among many of Kenyan towns, to a great extent,
is the direct result of this problematic water concept. By this thinking, municipal
governments and water utilities focus mainly on the development of new water resources
without due attention to wastewater treatment and reuse as well as water conservation.
The current situation in Thika best illustrates this water dilemma. The water recycling
and conservation concept will not only augment the source of supply but also eventually
reverse the downward environmental quality of Thika. It’s sustainable and environment
friendly feature merit it the best alternative in especially a transit economy when demand
is varied and negative environmental impact is huge. This new thinking should also be
the cornerstone of any future water policies in Kenya if the epidemic water shortage and
water pollution in Kenya’s towns and cities tend to be cured

1.6.2 Institutional Capability:

General weakness in institutional arrangement and fragmentation in water management
are widely thought to aggravate the water problems all over the world. In Kenya, water

11
management is traditionally resided in many parts of government. In recent years,
however, due to the increasing water scarcity, central government tried to reform water
management in order to act efficiently and effectively. The unsatisfactory coordination
between concerned water authorities is well below the initial expectation. It turns out that
administrative arrange alone is not enough to handle water problem.
The West (Developed nations) has already fully documented the efficiency and
effectiveness of regional solution based on hydrological boundary to water supply
problem. In fact, Kenya has also set up six drainage basins. These include:
 Lake Victoria North Catchment Area.
 Lake Victoria South catchment Area.
 Rift Valley Catchment Area.
 Tana Catchment Area Basin.
 Athi Catchment Area
 Ewaso Nyiro North Catchment Area.
But for the long time, these arrangements are just another administrative tribunals of the
government without fully functioning. The demand plan has been modified according to
water projection as well as the storage level of reservoirs. At present, water intake
capacity of waterworks in the basin is more than three times of the amount of natural
renewable water resources (Ministry of Water and Irrigation, 2007). Fragmented water
management is a great barrier to the formulation of unified control over water resource.
Long, middle-term supply demand plan under this management system can not be
prepared and effectively implemented. Optimum water-efficiency fails to be achieved.
Institutional capability building is one of the fundamental tasks for Thika which should
be approached from the basin point of view. More radical organizational reform should
be carried out with the objective to build a powerful centralized management in charge of
basin-wide water resources planning, development, management, and finance. The
existing powers in different departments should be removed or agglomerated into the
regional organization This authority should also be responsible for water supply,
sewerage treatment, regional wastewater reuse, flood prevention as well as environmental
protection of the whole basin.

12
The dichotomy between urban and rural water supply has a very strong equity
implication and seriously compromise water conservation in general. On one hand, most
of the rural residents or new immigrants usually either do not have the equal access to the
clean municipal water or are charged differently from urban inhabitants for the same
service. On the other hand, this division leaves rural water out of the efficient water
management. As a mater of fact, providing reliable, clean municipal water accessible to
everybody regardless of his or her entitlement should be one of the mandates of the
regional water authority.

1.6.3 Water Demand Management:

Price elasticity which measures the sensibility of the water demand to the change of water
price is widely accepted among developed economies especially in the USA as the most
efficient way to manage traditionally unbridled demand. Researches further confirm that
comparing with outdoor use, indoor water use is more inelastic to possible price change
because of its basic requirement nature. Recent water studies in Thika prepared by both
domestic and foreign consultants also suggest water pricing as one of the major measures
to deal with Thika’s water problem. Water use among residents is still conservative.
Comparative demand management studies between high per capita water use country and
lower one such as the U.S and France suggest that demand management even through
water pricing do not result as much reduction of demand in France as that in the U.S.
Meanwhile, current water pricing, even though it is quite low, is already one of the
conservation-oriented rate structures – uniform commodity pricing and including the fee
for wastewater disposal. Water pricing, therefore, will not an effective measure to
efficiently manage future demand in Thika. Future water pricing should focus on how to
address equity issue in water supply (GoK, 1992) Improving structural efficiency of
Thika water utilities such as leak detecting and network maintenance will be the much
more effective ways of water management. Urban household water use survey also
suggests that retrofit and leakage detection and repairing have the greatest potential to
reduce residential water demand in Thika. To replace exiting toilet with the water-saving
one will result in 30 percent water reduction. If a leaking faucet is repaired, one to six
cubic meters (multiply by 1000 litters) of water can be saved.

13
According to the estimation of World Bank (World Development Report, 1992), if water
conservation will be adopted as an alternative to expanding supply in Thika through
improving efficiency in public facilities, reducing leakage, recycling air conditioning
cooling water and installing water-efficient flush toilet in domestic use, 15 percent of
current domestic consumption could be achieved. If the same policy could be carried out
in industry as well, another 33 percent of current industrial consumption would be saved.
Increasing user fees as one of the water reform measures will surly expand the revenue
for water utility. Municipal government should establish a stable financial source to
ensure the continuous improvement of social infrastructure including municipal water.
Because of the under-investment before reform era, Thika municipal government for
many years to come should still commit to the ethic of growth in basic infrastructure
service.

1.7 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

The overall objectives of the following proposed water policy recommendations for
Thika is to facilitate water planning and management reform so as to secure long-term
water supplies while meeting strict criteria for public health requirements and for socio-
economic, financial and environmental sustainability. They are focused specifically on
the acute problems of water supply planning and management in Thika and its hosting
river basin, and are aimed to encourage: water recycling and sustainable concept; the
appropriate development of conventional and non-conventional water resources; a
marked improvement in the efficiency of water use; and an effective management of
water demand in the long-run (UNESCO and UN Habitat, 2006).Seven main policy
recommendations for municipal water planning and management are presented, which
could be implemented through varied programs and reforms: legal and institutional,
planning and analysis, water recycling and environmental protection, water conservation
and efficiency as well as protecting underground water resource.

14
First, the Central Government should set up a centralized and basin based management to
assume responsibility within the hydrological boundary for proper planning, design,
construction, operation, maintenance, finance and ownership of water and wastewater
related waterworks. The scarce water resources and severe water pollution in Thika and
its surrounding area are aggravated by the segregation of water management according to
administration boundary rather than by hydrological one. Recent efforts to increase
efficiency of water management reaffirm that the important prerequisite to effective
metropolitan water resources planning and management is the creation of an adequate
metropolitan and regional structure to conduct this planning and implement it in the
management. The regionalization of the management can result in major economics of
scale and only the regional authority can identify and evaluate these economies. This
regional arrangement by its structural advantage will integrate water supply and
wastewater service as well as urban and rural water supply and demand management,
implemented unified water policies aiming at basin wide efficient water use (Tsakiris,
2002).

Water legislation is closely linked with the development of other natural resources,
especially in regions such as Thika where environmental conditions are vulnerable and
sensitive to deterioration because of its aggressive use of water resources. There is an
urgent need to critically review all existing legislation and how they relate to the policy
options under review. The main areas of legislation that require amendment cover water
rights, water abstraction, water quality and environmental standards, water charges, water
pollution and environment protection, groundwater protection from depletion and
contamination, wastewater treatment and solid waste disposal. The effective
implementation of new policies by regional authority is crucial in water management. A
compulsory environment impact analysis procedure should be established for evaluate
any future water projects on water resources and environment (Siebel et.al, 2002 and
Wilderer 2003)

Second, the regional authority should formulate basin wide supply demand analysis and
modelling; build up comprehensive hydrological data base for planning and decision-

15
making. Individual municipality in the basin traditionally prepare its own water supply
planning without much consideration of potential regional water resources. Lacking a
regional water resource planning, many of the action plans are insufficient in minimize
negative regional impacts. For example, the most recent Sustainable Water Resource
Planning of Thika in the Beginning of 21st Century which was finished by the end of
1999 is also week in regional aspect (UNEP/GRID, 2025).

The altered planning context and changing demand pattern call for an authoritative and
comprehensive basin water plan to guide future water resource development. A full
inventory of the existing quantity and quality of water resources, along with time series
for demand trend analysis and to calculate design parameters for waterworks should be
determined. Water data collection should be well planned and continuous to provide
information for assessing the performance of water schemes after implementation and
their basin wide effect. The development of additional water resources in the region will
require well planned, detailed and integrated studies of the potential for surface,
groundwater and non-conventional water resources, and cooperation between member
provinces in these studies. Only then can the most appropriate and economically feasible
options be selected from among the many recognized techniques, including wastewater
reuse, water diversion, surface storage, groundwater recharge, rational exploitation of
groundwater aquifers, and use of sea water. There are strong links between regional
economies and water resource management. Regional development strategies - for
example strategies for rice self-sufficiency - directly influence water allocation and use in
the region. The basic guideline should be to encourage the import of water intensive
products from other regions and export less water consumptive goods out of this region.
Economic incentives could provide effective instruments for rationalizing water use.
Conservation-oriented water rate structure should be undertaken careful study to
determine both its demand management impact and revenue trend in the region. Finally,
any proposed projects and programs must undergo comprehensive review and assessment
before implementation, including cost-benefit analysis, cost effectiveness analysis,
environmental impact assessment and economic and financial analysis.

16
Third, Water recycling should be the crux of any water policies in this region and should
be adopted as the fundamental way to solve water shortage, protect environment and
maintenance the sustainable water resources development in future. Vulnerable water
situation in terms of both scarce water supply and severely polluted water environment in
Thika, to a great extend, is the direct result of aggressive and wasteful water use in the
past (GoK, 1986). Water recycling is proved to be the only fundamental solution to the
regional water problem by augmenting source of supply while improving environmental
quality. The long non-potable wastewater reuses history, large over mining area of
groundwater aquifer, geographical location of major municipalities as well as dominated
agricultural water use in this region provide an advantageous situation for a promising
wastewater reuse in Thika region in future. Regionally managed reuse practice will
eventually defer huge capital investment currently under consideration and low the
pressure for future water sources protection and rejuvenate the deteriorating and fragile
urban ecological system (Acher et.al1997).

Fourth, Water conservation and efficiency improvement should be reassessed as long-

term methods and be integrated into the long-term water supply and demand planning
and management. Conservation and efficiency improvement are widely considered as
short-term alternatives in the drought conditions among Thika and other municipalities in
the region. Water conservation and efficiency efforts are also partly adopted in the urban
area only. With the increasing demands on limited water resources, these water
conservation and efficiency improvement methods need to be reassessed as long-term
measures and comprehensively implemented to reduce municipal water use (Andren,
2004). Public awareness is essential to the success of a water conservation and efficiency
improvement program. A long term public education program is equally crucial as the
conservation program itself. Meanwhile, the importance of the monitoring and evaluation
of the programs should also be recognized.

Fifth, conserving groundwater resources should be considered as the basic way to protect
Thika and its hosting region from any drought conditions. Based on the groundwater
supply capacity a long term contingency water supply plan should be prepared. In the

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past several decades, groundwater has always been the last restore for municipalities such
as Thika to survive the drought conditions. In the future, ground water merit even more
protection to serve the same purpose for the region. But long time un conservative use
seriously compromise its sustainability. Over-drafted groundwater aquifers are very
popular in the entire region. Actively preserving the groundwater should be one of the
priorities in the water resource development in the region. Rural groundwater
management is the vacuum of segmented water system. In fact, inefficient irrigation
systems in rural areas drain out most of precious groundwater resources. Under the
centralized management of the regional authority, a universal metering program should
be implemented. A real cost based resource fee and license tariff should be levied for any
use and well-digging. Meanwhile, a groundwater conservation fund should be established
by each host municipality to release earmarked fund for subsiding groundwater based
irrigated agriculture.

Sixth, Water supply capacity in the region should be integrated with other urban planning
and development activities. Water supply plan should be the guideline for future urban
development and its possible economic and urban restructuring as well. Basin calls for
the changing status of water supply and sewage planning in urban planning and policy
hierarchy. Each year, municipalities suffer from huge economic loss because there are not
enough water neither for the full operation of industrial sectors nor for agricultural
irrigation (Dunne, 1978). On the other hand, however, many urban planning activities
such as urban development trend analysis, urban economic development study and urban
land use plan fail to give due and first consideration to local water supply capacity. Many
cities usually plan their land use and development first and then prepare the water supply
and sewage planning to meet passively the increasing water demand and wastewater
volume. Future water policies should prioritize water and sewage planning as one of the
top fields in the hierarchy of urban planning and policy. Water supply and wastewater
treatment capacity should be one of the determinants to future urban pattern and
development and one of the criteria for regional economic restructure.

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Seventh, each municipal government in the basin should contribute a stable amount of
financial resource to be earmarked as the common water fund to be utilized by regional
authority in order to maintain efficient water supply wastewater service and integrated
water resources management. The implementation of effective and efficient policies
governing water resources is greatly hindered by the shortage of financial resources in the
past especially those of the conservation initiatives in agriculture. Future sustainable
water policies must have positive impacts on municipal government finances in the
region from new tax revenues, prices and charges, and the reduction of urban subsidies.
New water policies should also help to eliminate the negative impact of urban bias and
shift the subsidizing focus from city to rural on agricultural water conservation and
efficiency improvement (Ellis, 1988).

Restructured water pricing to reflect the true costs, including environmental costs, of
maintaining and operating water supply works and wastewater treatment plants.
Meanwhile, by setting economic charges for water polluters with pollution charges
proportional to the volume and the quality of effluent, the industrial water pollution can
be effectively discouraged. The same caveat also applies for irrigation charges, which is
based on metering consumption, area irrigated, type of crop, or length of irrigation time.

19
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