Access to affordable and clean water cannot be taken for granted in Nairobi’s neighbourhood of Mathare. Gacheke Gachihi outlines the structural changes needed to guarantee affordable water for all.
Since the early 2000s, the struggle to access clean water and sanitation in Mathare has continued to sharpen as the population increases and water demand and uses become more diverse. Today, 70 per cent of Nairobi’s population live in informal settlements, and only 20 per cent have access to piped water and sanitation. I have lived in Mathare since the 1990s. Then, water was accessible through the Nairobi City Council taps, although it was not adequate and accessibility had decreased in comparison to the 1980s. What followed was an era of perennial water shortage in the early 2000s.
By Gacheke Gachihi