Case study Kenya

Updated - Monday 14 February 2005

Year of publication: 2005

This document is a case study on water supply and sanitation conditions and policies in Kenya in the general context of the Millennium Development Goals and the specific context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Its overall aim is to facilitate learning on how HIV/AIDS affects the water and sanitation sector and how administrators and policy makers may respond to, and cope with the effects of the disease. There are four specific objectives:

To present an overview of the overall water sector conditions and policies in Kenya in the light of the Millennium Development Goals for drinking water supply and sanitation;
To present insights into the relationship of these goals and their realisation with the broader context of poverty, water resources conditions and management, and HIV/AIDS;
To illustrate the influence of the epidemics on attitudes and coping strategies with examples of community and agency/project experiences;
To draw lessons and formulate recommendations from the review on how administrators, policy makers and donors can better cope with the disease and its implications for the water sector.

The intended readers are managers, policy makers and staff of non-governmental and governmental donor agencies working in the water supply and sanitation sector and in other sectors related to hygiene and environmental health.

The case study is based on a review of secondary data on developments in Kenya and on interviews with individuals and groups which give support to communities and groups affected by HIV/AIDS. It covers the following aspects:

The current conditions and policies in the drinking water supply and sanitation sector in the context of the country's water resources conditions and developments;
The Millennium Development Goals for water and sanitation and their relationship with three other MDGs: poverty alleviation, health and environmental sustainability;
Kenya's strategy for containing the spread of HIV/AIDS infections and coping with the multi-sectoral implications of the epidemic;
The financial requirements to meet the MDGs for water and sanitation and the impact of HIV/AIDS on budget allocation to expand DWSS coverage and sustain existing water services;
A – non-exhaustive – overview of community and institutional responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its implications for basic services such as water supply and sanitation;
Conclusions on the adjustment of the country's policies and strategies on water supply, sanitation and hygiene to the impacts of HIV/AIDS and on the adjustment of the HIV/AIDS policy and strategy to the relevance of an adequate access to water and sanitation and good hygiene practices in preserving the health of those infected with HIV/AIDS and the livelihoods of their families.

The author of the case study, John Mbugua Kiongo, is a water engineer and rainwater harvesting specialist. He is the founder member of the Kenya Rainwater Harvesting Association, the Vice Chairman of the Nakuru City Aids Control Committee, and the President of the Rotary Club of Nakuru.

As a network of information centres for the drinking water sector, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and partner organisations in other countries have as one of their tasks to share recent and relevant knowledge about ongoing developments in the water sector. At the time of publishing this study, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is about to take hold in several other continents, notably in South and South East Asia. This report gives water managers and policy makers in these and other world regions the opportunity to learn from a case described by one of their fellow sector officers.

It is sincerely hoped that the sharing of this case study from Kenya - a country which has sadly been forced to learn about the impact of the epidemics through its own experiences - will contribute to a greater awareness and early preventive and mitigating action in those countries where the epidemic is still at a stage where timely action can make a tremendous difference.