Win-win with water ‘ATMs’

Around the world people use ATMs to access cash. In the Kenyan capital’s  slums, people now use them for a much more basic need –  clean water.

Four water dispensing machines have been installed in Nairobi that operate like cash machines – with customers able to buy affordable water using smart cards.

It has cut costs dramatically, and is helping improve health, residents say.

“It’s pure and good for cooking, and above all it is affordable,” said Peter Ngui, who runs a small street restaurant.

“I used to get water from far away, but this is closer to my place of work.”

Without water pipes or plumbing in the tin-hut districts, residents used to buy water from sellers dragging handcarts loaded with jerry cans or oil drums in the narrow streets.  That water was often dirty, sometimes taken illegally from broken pipes.

But the new machines, installed by the state-run Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company (NWSC), allow people to buy it directly – and far more cheaply.

For the government, the machines allow them to make a profit, as water was previously stolen from them, with people cracking pipes to siphon off water to sell.

“The project is commercially viable,” NWSC chief Philip Gichuki said.  “Illegal water services are going to die off because residents are now assured of good water.”

The new machines have made water up to six times cheaper. Previously, people would buy 20 litres from a street seller for three shillings (37 SA cents), often from unreliable sources.   That price was difficult for many unemployed slum residents.  The machines sell the same for half a shilling – and it is treated and safe to drink.

“We will have more and more people accessing water in a more dignified manner,” Gichuki said, standing beside one of the new machines, as long lines of women waited to fill cans full of water, heavy loads they must then carry back home.

“The people in the informal settlements will improve in terms of their health standards and they will also spend less money in terms of water services,” he added.

Residents load money onto the water smart cards at a nearby kiosk or via payments sent on a mobile phone – a common system of payment in Kenya, which pioneered the sending of cash via phones – then tapping into the machine how many litres they want to buy.

The machines are operated by local youth and women groups, who earn 40% of the profits  as an incentive to ensure they stay running and the system is not vandalised.

Now with the new machines and water points, the governments hopes there will be less reason to damage the pipes.

Lack of efficient sewerage and toilets mean water sources in the slums are often polluted, with diarrhoea common. Over 80 people died in a recent outbreak of cholera.

Kenya’s slums earned a grim reputation for “flying toilets”  – when people defecate into plastic bags due to a lack of other facilities they just hurl it somewhere else into the shanty town.