At least 4,820 people in KIWASH focus counties are now accessing basic drinking as a result of improved supply from small-scale water enterprises. The enterprises often establish their businesses to fill the water supply gap in peri-urban areas where municipal water companies have not established infrastructure and systems of delivery.

KIWASH focuses on improving their business practices through training, on-site coaching and mentoring support enabling them improve customer care services and marketing outreach, improve operations and maintenance, enhance revenue collection, monitor performance and upgrade the registration status in order to secure legal recognition and increase their mandate of carrying out WASH services.

To date, 95 WASH enterprises and 404 staff have gone through two phases of the training and are making commendable progress in expanding access, cutting and monitoring operational costs and reaching 100% revenue collection.

Take for example, the Ahero Catholic Water Project which was set up in 1967 to provide the community with safe drinking water to help reduce the spread of water related diseases like cholera and typhoid which were rampant in the area. The project was losing revenue due to unmetered connections and weak revenue collection practices. As a result of the USAID supported training and coaching, the water project has adopted business practices in their daily operations and are reaping the benefits. For instance, the small team now sets target every week to deal with customer complaints, revenue collection and new connections.

“In just four months of training, we have increased our monthly revenue collection from US$ 1,500 to US$ 2,300, restored connections to 30 customers and connected 20 new customers”, said Samson Winja, operations manager. “We will not lose any revenue now, because we are metering all new connections”, he adds.