| dc.description.abstract | The International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade 1981-1990 (IDWSSD)
had the objective of providing safe and adequate drinking-water and appropriate
sanitation for as many people as possible (WHO, 1994). The decade stimulated
governments, communities and external support agencies to release resources for
development of water supplies and sanitation. In Kenya, the government through various
policy papers and development plans expressed its commitment to improve these services
by decentralizing and running the facilities on commercial basis. Such development is
acknowledged as essential for the good health on which personal well being and national
productivity and wealth depend. For these benefits to be fully realized, the water and
sanitation facilities provided must function continuously, effectively and to their full
capacity .
Poor management coupled with inadequate operation and maintenance has led to more
than half the water supply being unaccounted for in many towns in the republic. In parts
of these towns served. by public supplies, wastage is high and the tariffs are fixed
arbitrarily without consideration of costs. By contrast, residents of fringe areas remain
largely unserved by public supplies and forced to pay the market price for insufficient and
unsafe water from private vendors. The price is often 10 to 20 times higher than that
charged to users connected to the public water supplies.
Commercialization of water supplies and sanitation services, was initiated by the Kenyan
government in 1986 by producing" a Sessional Paper that stipulated the necessary
measures to achieve these objectives and in1987, the required institutional set-up were
established through the assistance of donor agencies like GTZ.
For over ten years, none of the towns in Kenya have been able to run water supplies and
sanitation services on full commercial basis. The process of commercialization of water
supplies and sanitation services in Kenya has been done in various ways. In general, it
begins with the central government decentralizing or relinquishing the supply and
provision of these services to the local authorities which are in return, expected to operate
the facilities like any service industry to earn revenue and self sustain the services. At its
worst, the local authority should break- even but the main objective is to make profits.
The pnmary objective of this research project was to identify the key factors in
commercialization process and to find out what need to be done in light of the key
limiting factors to minimize the implementation period. The other objective was
document to commercialization model adopted by Nyeri Municipal Council and giving
recommendations on how best the model could be improved to shorten the process of
implementing commercialization concept and making commercialization of water and
sanitation more effective than it has been before.
In chapter one, the introduction and the background of commercialization process in
Kenya has been discussed. The research problem and objectives of the study are also
stated in this chapter. Chapter two reviews the literature on commercialization of water
and sanitation in general and specifically in Kenya. Various issues on commercialization
which includes alternative administrative options, management and, proposed
commercialization has been discussed. Chapter three has research design, consisting the
definition of the research population, the sample selection and the data collection
instruments used in the study as well the method of data analysis that was used. In
analysis, descriptive and content analysis were used to address objective one of the study
while factor analysis was used to determine critical factors in commercialization which
was the objective two of the study. In Chapter four, the data collected was analyzed with
the aim of achieving the objectives of the study stated in chapter one. The Nyeri Water
and Sewerage Company model of commercialization is documented detailing various
administrative and managerial aspects involved in developing the model. On
identification of the critical factors in commercialization, six major factors were
identified. These factors are community awareness and participation; political and town's
chief officers interference; strategic management and administrative functions; operation
and maintenance; capital investment and drinking water resources; and human resource
management. Chapter five has the conclusion, summaries and recommendations drawn
form the study. Further topics of research related to this area of study are also suggested
in this chapter. | en |
