Water for the urban poor : water markets, household demand, and service preferences in Kenya / Sumila Gulyani, Debabrata Talukdar, and R. Mukami Kariuki.

“January 2005”.

Includes bibliographical references.

Contents: Abstract—1. Introduction—2. Supply arrangements, performance of urban utilities, and the reform agenda—3. The data—4. Development priorities of poor and non-poor urban households—5. Understanding the water situation at the household level—6. Comparing the level of service from different systems—7. Household preferences and willingness to pay for improvements—8. Conclusions.

Summary: “This study finds that the current water supply situation in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kakamega is dismal. Although about half of the sampled households have access to private piped water connections, only 5 percent of those connected are poor. The poor households are thus overwhelmingly dependent on alternative water sources and end up spending an average of 42 minutes in collecting water (compared with 15 minutes spent by non-poor households). These findings are not surprising. Indeed, stories of underserved poor households are legion in the literature, which shows that the urban poor are not likely to have a private water connection, are likely to be paying high unit prices for water that they purchase, and are spending a significant amount of time in collecting water”—(p. 27).