Naivasha, Kenya

Mirera-Karagita is a low income peri-urban settlement situated 6km from the centre of Naivasha Town, next to the internationally renowned Lake Naivasha, a designated Ramsar Site, in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya.

The community is large and fast growing with a current estimated total population of 54,000 people distributed in two major blocks: Karagita, a densely populated slum with a population of 27,000 people; and Mirera, also with 27,000 people, that surrounds Karagita and is more sparsely populated.

The area is continuing to be built up and using conservative growth rates the population is expected to grow to almost 100,000 people by 2017 and to 173,000 people by 2027. People in 80 percent of the households in the area live on less than US $ 1 dollar each per day.

In Naivasha, boreholes are the main source of water and most of the underground water is characterised by high levels of fluoride, which is the cause of dental and skeletal fluorosis.

The Mirera-Karagita Water and Environmental Sanitation programme aims to reach 100,000 people in the Naivasha area with improved water and sanitation services, together with better hygiene.

A model has been tested, where the water services provider, water company and community run new decentralised water treatment plants under an operating agreement, while private and community boreholes provide the water.

Fluoride filters, using locally produced bone char, are being used to treat the high level of fluoride in the drinking water sold at kiosks in the programme area.

Key Achievements to Date

Demonstrated models of service delivery to the urban poor

• Sustainable service improvements for 45,000 urban poor for water and 7,500 for sanitation, demonstrating replicable models for the city’s 200,000 low income consumers

• Access to water treated for high fluoride, endemic in the Rift Valley. Untreated water also available for washing and cooking at a lower price. 

• New style service provision agreement between independent operator, private borehole owner, utility and asset owner providing a sustainable mechanism for reaching the informal settlements 

Strengthened institutional capacity to sustain improvement process

• Sanitation market strengthened through creation of association of suppliers able to provide lower cost services and meet local demand. Sanitation marketing campaign building demand where latrine coverage is low

• Strategy to climate proof urban water and sanitation services developed by local authorities

Investment mobilised for scale up of models

• RVWSB providing inputs into the programme as co-financing

• WSUP supporting the implementation of RVWSB AfDB funded programme in Naivasha municipality and encouraging replication in other cities in Kenya