The Problem
2.1 billion people still lack safely managed water at home, and progress must accelerate eightfold to meet the SDG target.
The barrier isn't only infrastructure. Most small utilities and community water providers in low-resource regions are trapped in a self-reinforcing spiral of decline that makes them unable to attract the investment needed to expand piped services.
The spiral of decline
- Inadequate investment and maintenance degrade service quality
- Water users stop paying and invest in private sources instead
- Falling revenue starves the provider of funds for improvements
- Service declines further, and the cycle repeats
25%
Piped water access in Kenya has stagnated at one in four households; more than half of all households must collect water from outside the home.
20%
Of 504 piped schemes we surveyed across four Kenyan counties, only one in five had the data needed to compute the KPIs required by the national regulator.
First
Children bear the cost first, through stunting from repeated diarrheal disease, followed by the water-carrying burden on women and girls and the depletion of groundwater.