By Dickens Wasonga.

Kisumu city has over the years faced perennial water shortage but it appears the problem is about to be fixed once and for all thanks to the current vibrant management at Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company formed in the year 2003.

The water company under the stewardship of Engineer David Onyango has in the recent past made great progress in supply of water and improvement of customer operations.

According to the MD ,KIWASCO has put steps in place to ensure Kisumu residents get timely and adequate water supply by the end of this year

Emergency works and expansion project which has been ongoing at the Dunga Water Treatment plant where a new treatment facility is being constructed is near completion and is due for commissioning by December.

When complete, the new treatment facility will see water supply to the over a half a million residents of the lake side city doubled to about 46,000m3.
KIWASCO has two water treatment plants both of which supply about 21,000m3 per day against a demand of about 46,000m3. Dunga Treatment Plant has a capacity of 20,000m3 while that of Kajulu is 1300m3.
Dunga treatment plant which was built in 1922 is the biggest and the main water treatment facility in the city . It has had only two rehabilitations , in 1938 and the last one was in 1968.
KIWASCO’s distribution system within the city is also set to undergo a major rehabilitation including the sewerage treatment which will boost their capacities to cope with the ever growing population of the town.

Initially the water company could barely supply water adequately to all the estates because its original supply system was designed for a small population back then and it was forced to introduce rationing of the commodity.Estates like Migosi which never had water in the past can now receive water.
The company faced numerous challenges including poor quality of water, poor supply, burst and leaking pipes.

Others included overflowing sewers and discharge of raw waste into Lake Victoria , irregular billing, poor communication and customer relationships,and massive water theft. In fact KIWASCO still loses up to 80 per cent of its water to theft . As a result the company suffered low revenue collection and a dented corporate image.
To counter this KIWASCO has embark on rigorous reforms, a process which is already bearing fruits. According to the MD, the company has managed to streamline its activities right from the Board level, Management and down to Operations level.
In its Short and Long Term Action Plan KIWASCO is also introducing customer-focused innovations which are bound to improve the quality and efficiency of services to its customers.
To address problems of bill repayment and shorten the long queues at the Head office, KIWASCO recently introduced a new bill payment option that will now enable customers to settle their bills through M-Pesa.

Customers can also interrogate their accounts through SMS and know their balances.

”We are delighted to offer our customers the easiest and most convenient methods to query and settle their bills. With the introduction of our M-Pesa bill payment services, all domestic customers now need not queue at the head office to pay their bills but do it from any part of the country.” said Eng. Onyango

It has also introduced a pre-paid water metering system to the informal settlement of Nyalenda in a move to improve access to water and revenue collection.
The pilot project scheduled to run for six months in Nyalenda is being implemented by a Namibian based company ,TagMeter Namibia and will provide an opportunity for KIWASCO and residents of Kisumu city to assess the suitability of implementing such systems to water distribution management.
KIWASCO has also acquired 31 motor cycles for meter readers and its maintenance staff .The company Chairman Israel Agina and Eng. Onyango launched the new motorcycles last week in a colorful ceremony at the Kibuye KIWASCO Plant.
Mr. Agina said that the mobility of meter readers is the very backbone of the firm given that it is its primary source of revenue.
He noted that customer base has been growing at a steady rate and that this is expected to rise even higher after the completion of the expansion works at Dunga water treatment plant.
During the launching ceremony the Managing Director said the motor cycles would help in improving billing and revenue collection which will in turn trickle down to the customer in terms of improved and reliable services.
“we are committed providing reliable, quality and affordable water and sewerage services in an efficient, viable, and environmentally friendly manner. We will continue to improve our efficiency in all sections of our operations and ensure our customers are satisfied.

To widen its scope of supply, KIWASCO has embarked on Re-activation of dormant accounts, where they reach out to customers who were disconnected due to huge bills and allow them to reconnect and continue to enjoy water supply
Daily contact with key customers on water situation to monitor supply reliability and quality of water is also done currently.

We established that plans are also at advanced stages to introduce a customer call center ensure that customers’ complaints are fully addressed in time.
A recent customers survey conducted in October 2009 majority of customers said there is an improvement in supply and reliability of water and sanitation services in the city.
KIWASCO has now also revamped treatment of waste water prior to discharge, at Kisat plant has been revamped after it stalled a few years ago and today the waste treatment process is active.
”The sewerage infrastructure in Kisumu is very old and has largely remained the same over the years despite the rapid population growth which has since grown to over double the capacity that can comfortably be served by the sewer network”Observed the MD
When the sewer network was constructed it was intended to serve a smaller population compared to the current population of over 500,000 residents yet the sewerage system has not undergone major expansions to keep pace with the population growth.

For several years, the biggest challenge to KIWASCO has been water loss but thanks to a team of dedicate staff, it has managed to reduce the amount of water being lost to theft and leakages from an all time high of 70% to now about 49%. and efforts to drive this figure further down by the end of this year are in place.

However water theft through illegal connections and vandalism of the supply systems is still a big setback for the water company.
Onyango said surveillance has been stepped up and with the help of members of the public , several arrests have been made and scores prosecuted.

”Apart from denying Kisumu residents their right to access to adequate water supply, KIWASCO also looses over 49% of the daily water supply to such illegal water connections. Such connections frustrate our efforts and mandate to supply clean and reliable water” He said
KIWASCO realizes that employees are the most valued assets of the company and therefore the company constantly looks for better ways to uphold and improve staff welfare.
With effect from October 1, 2010 KIWASCO entered into a new medical scheme cover for its employees with Madison insurance in an effort to improve healthcare for staff. This unlike earlier ones will cover both inpatient and outpatient cases.

ENDS.