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Water Service Regulatory Board Chief Executive Officer Robert Gakubia

Kenya

Water companies leaking losses

Water Service Regulatory Board Chief Executive Officer Robert Gakubia

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 13 – Most water service providers across the country cannot account for an average 45 percent of their water supply which ends up being consumed and not being paid for.

Water Service Regulatory Board Chief Executive Officer Robert Gakubia said on Friday that there are some companies that lose as much as 80 percent of their supply, primarily as a result of poor management.

“There must be something very wrong. This water is being consumed, but the revenue does not come to the revenue stream of the company, “said Gakubia.

He announced that the authority is working on measures to reduce the wastages, including conducting audits and weeding out incompetent leaders.

He said a lot of water is lost through illegal connections, wrong meter reading, wrong billing, lack of collection of water bills from customers among others.

He said that the worst of all is that most of the illegal connections are usually collaboration between the companies’ staff and the public adding that only one third of the water is lost through leaking pipes.

“Kenyans are very law abiding and not many of them would dig and break a pipe, without some protection somewhere. And that is why I am challenging some of these water companies; where are these illegal connections, is it that you don’t know them?” he wondered.

“You really must know where your connections are, you must actually go there and soil your hands, you must clean up your customer base and records, before you even think of improving efficiency by using technology,” Gakubia insisted.

He was speaking during the launch of an audit report on energy saving measures for the water companies,

According to the report, carried out among 29 companies across the country Isiolo Water Company and Kirinyaga rank the highest in energy savings, at 56 percent while Nzoia Water Company lags behind at zero percent energy savings.

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The audit which was funded by a German Agency, BfZ, at a cost of Sh4 million also gives suggestions on energy saving measures.

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