Seasonality, Water Use and Management of Community-Based Water Projects in Urban Slums

Findings from Nairobi’s Kayole Slums, Kenya

Résumé

Although progress has been made to accelerate access to safe drinking water globally, it is estimated that over 800 million people still lack access to safe water, and have to rely on unsafe and often contaminated water sources. With a population of 50 million, 40% of Kenyans rely on unimproved water sources, including ponds, shallow wells and rivers. Consumption of unsafe water is responsible for over 500,000 deaths annually due to diarrheal disease. Approximately one-third of boreholes with hand pumps fail within five years of construction, interrupting water service that force users to revert to alternative, potentially unprotected, sources. Modelled data suggest that this may undermine any health benefits provided by the water system. The goal for this study was to analyse the seasonality of water use and management of community-based water projects in urban slum settlements. A case of Spring Valley Centre Water Project of Kayole Slums in Nairobi County, Kenya, was studied. A simple linear regression was used, with relationships fitted between the data and time series steps. The observed data over time (time series data) was used to construct three components of a time series - trend, seasonality and the random component. The analysis of the monthly revenue from water sales at the kiosk, over a study period of 2013 to 2020, indicated that the activities peak once  a year and drop to a low once in the year. The earlier years (2013 to 2015) could, however, be seen to have annual revenue from water sales at the kiosk varying at a lower rate compared to the latter years of 2015 to 2019. These findings of seasonality in revenues require water management committees to consider planning for continuous functionality and sustainability, while creating awareness against relapse to consumption of water from contaminated sources.