**9. Present water supply situation of in the Athi River catchment area (ACA)**

Data from the KNBS [2] indicates that the population of ACA in 2010 stood at 9.79 million including an urban population of 6.51 million and a rural population of 3.28 million. This population is concentrated in both Nairobi area and Mombasa area, which are the major metropolitan areas in the basin. A study by the JICA team [1] and adopted by this present study estimated the current situation of water connection and supply of ACA as shown **Table 9**.

**Table 9** clearly indicates that 24% of the population in the basin gets water from unregistered water vendors, streams, lakes and ponds without proper treatment, which are designated as an unimproved drinking water sources. Around 22% of the population gets water from springs, wells or boreholes, which are considered safe for water supply. A considerable proportion of the population (54%) is supplied with water by water service providers through pipes indicating a good trend in


#### **Table 9.**

*Current situation of water connection (ACA).*

water provision in the basin. However, with a projected urban population of 11.22 million and decrease of rural population by 0.47 million as a result of rural–urban migration in search of better living conditions and employment, water provision and supply remain a big challenge.

The urban population in the basin is well served with piped water representing 63% and this ratio is the highest in all six catchment areas. The implication of this is that the catchment requires implementing a large-scale urban water supply system development to cope with the urban population increase of 1.08 million and achieve the target coverage ratio of 100% as envisaged in the JICA study team report. It also calls for a proactive water resources development strategy that includes investments in water harvesting and conservation of water catchment areas through re-afforestation programmes.
