KENYA

Installing sewers in informal settlements.

With an urbanization rate of 4.5% per annum, Kenya is one of the most rapidly urbanizing countries in the world. Access to improved sanitation facilities remains low at 31% in urban areas, with 84% of the Kenyan population depending on onsite sanitation. As a result, it is a widespread practice in non-sewered areas for residents to discharge fecal waste into the storm drain networks.

In addition, unaffordable connection and maintenance fees and a lack of reliable water supply prevent low-income residents from accessing city sewer networks.

To address this challenge and provide better sanitation to many, WSUP piloted and installed simplified sewer systems and networks in Nairobi, Nakuru, and Naivasha.

The simplified sewer network adapts to hard-to-reach urban cities and connects informal settlements. Simplified sewers are a cheaper, more efficient, and climate-resilient sanitation concept for densely populated areas using smaller, more flexible pipes at a shallower depth. These sewer networks transport waste into the existing central sewer trunk systems – and, from there, to treatment facilities.

CASE STUDY

Judith Chelangat Busienei, Githima

“I can comfortably let Alvny, my son, use the toilets without fear or discomfort”

Judith Chelangat Busienei is a resident of Githima, a low-income neighbourhood in Nairobi, one of the first areas to benefit from WSUP’s installation of simplified sewers. “I am so elated about the connection to the sewer line which prompted our landlord to upgrade our facilities from pit latrines to the current pour-flush. I can comfortably let Alvny, my son, use the toilets without fear or discomfort. The toilets were too smelly and difficult to maintain in the past. I therefore had to avail a potty where he would poop inside the house, then dispose it off into the latrine. This, to me, is a commendable life upgrade!”