A/HRC/30/39/Add.2
public toilets allow the poor to use the toilet and pay for it when they have the money.
While self-support systems are important safety nets, the realization of human rights cannot
rely on such informal and random systems. The Government should strengthen the system
to ensure affordability for the poorest of the poor by ensuring that the water tariffs are
complied with by all and that even smaller scale providers must comply with water
affordability standards, and also by ensuring that local authorities, service providers (formal
and informal) and residents work together to find lasting solutions to the challenges of
providing water and sanitation services in informal settlements.
41.
There are reportedly complaints against Runda Water Limited alleging that it buys
water from the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company and sells it to customers at a much
higher rate. The Water Services Regulatory Board, in its performance review report, states
that Runda Water Limits is maintaining its good performance, although the assessment does
not include the price of water and affordability.11
42.
While water services providers are obliged to submit tariff adjustment proposals to
the Water Services Regulatory Board, the monitoring of implementation of the tariffs by
the Board does not appear to be systematic. The Board provides a customers’ complaint
system, but the Special Rapporteur recommends that the Board should proactively monitor
compliance of the tariffs, particularly by small scale providers. The Government should
provide the Board with the resources necessary to strengthen its monitoring capacity.
43.
Similar affordability standards for sanitation must be established. In setting such
standards, the Government must consider both on-site and networked sanitation and
consider the full costs of sanitation, including the collection, transport and disposal or reuse
of human waste.
44.
In settlements that are not connected to the sewerage system, households often rely
on tankers and other informal service providers to empty their pit latrines and septic tanks.
These costs are often forgotten in assessments of affordability. Further, as informal service
providers tend to be unregulated, they charge prices determined by what the market will
bear or by price-fixing between providers, rather than by considerations of affordability.
For example, there may be extra charges for distance or difficult access. The Government
must therefore provide the financial and technological support necessary to improve the
affordability and safety of sanitation services.
D.
Availability of water supply
45.
With respect to the human right to water, there is no definitive standard regarding a
fixed daily quantity of water, hence the Government must assess local conditions and
requirements and refer to relevant studies before setting standards for the availability of
water and sanitation, which may include a specific number of litres of water to be available
to each person or household per day. Children, pregnant women and people with chronic
diseases are particularly vulnerable to illnesses, such as diarrhoea or cholera, when there is
not sufficient water available.
46.
The policy of Kenya is aimed at ensuring a minimum of 20 litres per day for
everyone at an affordable price, as defined in the National Water Services Strategy, 2007–
2015. While 20 litres may be an absolute minimum amount for survival — it is insufficient
11
See Water Services Regulatory Board, “Impact: a performance review of Kenya’s water services
sector 2011–2012”, p. 32.
11