Africa – Rural Water Supply Network

African Women Shaping Africa’s Water Future: Leadership, Governance, Financing, and Partnerships for the Africa Water Vision 2063

DIALOGUE BRIEF | WRITTEN BY EUPHRESIA LUSEKA

Africa’s water challenge is no longer simply an infrastructure gap. It is a leadership and institutional challenge: who makes decisions, who controls capital, who governs water systems and who has influence over the agreements that determine how Africa’s water resources are managed. In recognition of Africa Women’s Day 2026, this Strategic Leadership Dialogue brought together African women leaders and experts to address a central question: what will it take to position African women as decision-makers shaping the continent’s water future, rather than primarily as beneficiaries of water systems? Convened by African Women in Trade, the Pan-African Women’s Organization (PAWO) a specialised agency of the African Union (AU), the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN), the African Water and Sanitation Association (AFWASA) and other partners, the dialogue was led by Euphresia Luseka, with contributions from Dr Pedi Obani, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Bradford; Bethlehem Mengistu, Executive Director of Agenda for Change; and Ndeye Kebe, President of WIIS Senegal. The discussion focused on four levers that will determine Africa’s water future: leadership, governance, capital and partnerships. The strategic opportunity is to ensure that African women have meaningful influence across each of these levers, from policy and utility governance to investment decisions and transboundary diplomacy. This is critical to delivering the Africa Water Vision 2063. The ambition must be not simply to improve women’s access to water, but to increase women’s influence over the decisions, institutions and capital that determine Africa’s water future.

The Opening Perspective

Euphresia (Moderator):

Welcome to our Leadership Dialogue: African Women Shaping Africa’s Water Future: Leadership, Governance, Financing, and Partnerships for the Africa Water Vision 2063.

Earlier this year, African Heads of State adopted the Africa Water Vision 2063, recognising that gender equity is a prerequisite for water security. Yet according to UN Water, Sub-Saharan Africa faces an estimated $30 billion annual water investment gap, while women and girls spend 250 million hours every day collecting water.

So, today’s conversation is about a fundamental shift: How do we move African women from being disproportionately affected by water insecurity to becoming the leaders shaping Africa’s water economy?

Foundational Context

Euphresia (Moderator):

I want to anchor us in the powerful framing shared by Ndeye Kebe, President of WIIS Senegal.

She reminded us of Ole, 12-year-old girl who dreamt to be a doctor but never returned home after setting out to fetch water. Ole did not die because of war or disease but water access. Behind every statistic on water insecurity is a life constrained.

Imagine what Africa could achieve if those 250 million hours were redirected toward education, entrepreneurship, research, innovation and infrastructure? Water scarcity threatens livelihoods, intensifies resources competition, conflict vulnerability in communities, displacement, and gender-based violence.

However, transboundary cooperation demonstrates that shared water resources can become platforms for collaboration rather than confrontation.

Therefore, there will be no Agenda 2063 without water security, and there will be no water security without women.

She challenged us to position African women as negotiators, investors, and decision-makers. When women participate in mediation and natural resource governance, peace agreements become more durable and communities more resilient. The ambition she set before us is; ensuring that by 2030, women hold at least 30% of decision-making roles in water governance and transboundary negotiations.

From Representation to Institutional Power

Euphresia (Moderator):

Ndeye’s challenge brings us directly to the first question: if women are to hold greater influence in water governance, what needs to change inside the institutions where decisions are made?

Bethlehem, across Africa, many policies already recognise gender inclusion. However, women remain significantly underrepresented in executive positions. What is the single most important leadership decision African governments and institutions must make today to move women move women from representation to real decision-making power in Africa’s water sector?

Bethlehem:

Across our continent, women already manage water daily in households, agriculture, healthcare systems and communities. They understand the realities of water insecurity deeply. Yet they remain underrepresented in the rooms where policies are designed, budgets are allocated and investments are prioritised.

We cannot build Africa’s water future while excluding the people who understand the challenge most directly. But this is not simply about inviting more women into existing structures. Leadership is not about participation alone but about sharing power.

Women should be intentionally placed in positions where they can influence policy decisions, investment priorities and institutional reform. Representation alone is not enough. We need women to have authority, resources and accountability. The strongest reforms I have seen happen when leadership is collaborative and locally driven. When different perspectives shape decisions, institutions become stronger, more responsive and more resilient.

The Africa Water Vision 2063 will not be achieved through infrastructure alone. It will be achieved through leadership that reflects the diversity, talent and ambition of Africa’s people. The question is no longer whether women are ready to lead; it is whether our institutions are ready to give women the authority to lead.

Euphresia (Moderator):

Thank you, Bethlehem. That distinction is key. This is not simply about increasing the number of women in leadership positions.

Representation without authority and decision-making power does not transform institutions.

Dr. Pedi, let me bring you into the conversation. You have written and lectured extensively on law, climate justice, and governance. What needs to change in how we frame women’s participation in water governance?

Dr. Pedi:

I think one of the most important shifts we need is how we frame vulnerability. Most conversations around water begin with the image of women walking long distances, carrying water, and providing care. Those realities are important, but when they become the dominant narrative, they limit how we see women’s potential. African women are often framed through what we lack rather than what we bring.

We need to move from a vulnerability-based approach to an agency-based approach. Women are not inherently vulnerable. Vulnerability is created by the systems within which people operate, systems that restrict access to resources, decision-making spaces, finance, and legal protections.

“If you think about a fish taken out of water, that fish becomes vulnerable because the environment does not support it. The issue is not the fish itself; it is the system around it.”

The same applies to how we understand women’s leadership. African women are not one single category. Women differ by age, education, income level, geography, and experience. So, policy responses cannot simply be about ’empowering vulnerable women’. We must ask: how do we remove the structural barriers preventing women from exercising their agency?

Moving forward, water governance must recognise women not only as beneficiaries of services, but as experts, professionals, entrepreneurs, regulators, and leaders.

Euphresia (Moderator):

Thank you, Dr. Pedi. Both of you have brought us to a central point: the challenge is not a lack of women’s capacity but whether institutions are designed to recognise, enable and use that capacity.

Moving women from carrying water to governing water requires a shift in mindset, but also a shift in systems. It requires changing who has decision-making authority, who controls resources, and whose expertise shapes outcomes.

How Women Are Turning Africa’s Water Crisis into an Economic Engine

By Euphresia Luseka In Celebration of Africa Women’s Day 2026
KENYA, JULY 31, 2026

Featured photo: Gilda Giza Rede an Angolan Electromechanical maintenance technician. Rede also represents a new generation of women entering highly technical engineering roles in large-scale water infrastructure. Source, African Development Bank (AfDB).

As the African Union declares 2026 the Year of Water and Sanitation, the continent’s most persistent social burden is being reframed as a productive economic asset; driven by policy innovation, institutional partnerships, and female-led advances in infrastructure, science, and enterprise.

For decades, global development policy viewed African water through the lens of charity and endurance; measuring the billions of unpaid hours women spent carrying water rather than the economic value lost through reduced productivity, constrained livelihoods, and foregone opportunity[i].

As the African Union declares 2026 the Year of Water and Sanitation, that narrative is beginning to shift[ii]. Governments, investors, and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) are increasingly recognising what many African women leaders have long understood: water is not simply a welfare issue. It is productive infrastructure that underpins agriculture, manufacturing, energy security, public health, and, ultimately, economic growth.

This structural transition is reshaping the sector. The traditional model, centred on public expenditure and development assistance, is giving way to a diversified water economy in which governments, DFIs, commercial investors, technology firms, utilities, and local enterprises collectively finance, deliver, and scale water solutions as illustrated on the figure below.[iii] Within this emerging ecosystem, women are no longer positioned primarily as beneficiaries of water services but as scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, utility leaders, policymakers, and investors shaping how water is governed, financed, and deployed.

Figure Showing The AU 2026 Shift: How Female Leadership and Blended Finance are Transforming Africa’s Water Economy.

The implications extend well beyond the water sector. Reliable water systems determine agricultural productivity, industrial competitiveness, urban resilience, and countries’ capacity to adapt to climate change.[iv] Investment in water is therefore increasingly recognised not only as a social imperative but as a strategic economic investment.

The women shaping this transition are helping to build a new African water economy where science, policy, entrepreneurship, and finance converge to transform water from a development necessity into a catalyst for inclusive growth.

Some of the Women Building Africa’s Water Economy

This transformation is already visible across the continent through a new generation of scientists, entrepreneurs, and institutional leaders who are changing how water resources are measured, governed, financed, and delivered. As profiled in the 1^st African Women in Water and Sanitation Compendium,[v] their work demonstrates that the future of Africa’s water economy will depend not only on physical infrastructure, but on the systems of knowledge, innovation, and governance that make investment possible.[vi]

From satellite-based groundwater mapping in the Sahel to community-led watershed management in The Gambia, circular sanitation enterprises in Senegal, and digital water distribution models in Rwanda, women are building the capabilities required to convert water and sanitation challenges into economic opportunities as elaborated below:

1. Science: Turning Uncertainty into Investable Assets:

Investment follows information. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Sahel, where advances in satellite hydrology are transforming how groundwater resources are identified, valued, and managed. Among the pioneers is Dr. Fadji Zaouna Maina, a Nigerien Earth scientist and hydrologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Using satellite remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing, she maps deep aquifers across one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions. Her work enables governments, utilities, and investors to make more informed decisions on irrigation, water infrastructure, and long-term resource management.

A Few Drips Shouldn’t Close the Tap: The 16th Anniversary of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation

Blog by Euphresia Luseka, RWSN Leave No One Behind theme co-Lead

Featured photo: Catarina de Albuquerque, then United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, addressing the United Nations General Assembly on 27 July 2011. Source: United Nations.

On July 28, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 64/292 [i], recognising access to safe drinking water and sanitation as a fundamental human right. More than a symbolic declaration, the resolution marked a significant shift in global development policy, affirming that water and sanitation are not simply public services or economic commodities, but essential prerequisites for human dignity, public health, gender equality, and sustainable development.[ii]

16 years later, the Human Right to Water and Sanitation (HRWS) stands at a pivotal moment. Progress toward SDG6 has slowed, Official Development Assistance (ODA) is under pressure, and climate change is intensifying water insecurity across regions already struggling with fragile infrastructure[iii]. Against this backdrop, a growing narrative suggests that the promise of the right has failed to translate into meaningful change.[iv]

That conclusion overlooks an important reality.

The strongest argument for the Human Right to Water and Sanitation is not found in international declarations, but in the measurable progress achieved since its recognition in 2010.

The past 16 years have produced measurable progress in expanding access to safe water and sanitation, strengthening legal protections, and improving public service delivery.[v] While universal access remains out of reach, the evidence demonstrates that where governments have embedded the right in domestic law, invested in resilient infrastructure, and strengthened public institutions, the results have been transformative.[vi]

Building on 16 years of Progress

As illustrated in the figure below, the record since 2010 offers compelling evidence that rights-based governance can deliver tangible development outcomes when supported by political commitment, sound institutions, and sustained investment. Across countries and regions, the recognition of water and sanitation as a human right has influenced constitutional reforms, shaped public policy, strengthened accountability, and accelerated investments in essential services.

The expansion of water and sanitation services over the past two decades is unprecedented in scale. According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), more than 2.2 billion people have gained access to safely managed drinking water services, while 2.8 billion people have gained access to safely managed sanitation. 5 During the same period, the number of people practicing open defecation declined dramatically; from more than 1.3 billion at the turn of the century to an estimated 350 million today.5 These gains have contributed to lower rates of waterborne disease, improved child survival, and better health and education outcomes, particularly for women and girls.

While these advances cannot be attributed to Resolution 64/292 alone, the recognition of water and sanitation as a human right helped reshape the global policy landscape.1 It reinforced political commitments, informed national legislation, and strengthened accountability by establishing access to water and sanitation as a public obligation rather than a discretionary service.

The influence of the resolution is perhaps most evident in domestic legal reform. Although the resolution itself is not legally binding, it has served as an important normative foundation for constitutional and legislative change in many countries. Kenya’s, Uruguay’s, Ecuador’s, Bolivia’s and South Africa’s Constitution explicitly guarantees the right to sufficient water, providing citizens with a legal basis to challenge unjustified service disconnections and demand government accountability.7 In India, the Supreme Court has interpreted the constitutional right to life to encompass access to safe drinking water, expanding legal protections for vulnerable communities.8 Across Latin America, countries including Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Brazil have strengthened constitutional and statutory provisions that prioritise water for domestic use over competing commercial interests.6 Similar developments have occurred in Europe. Slovenia amended its Constitution in 2016 to recognise access to drinking water as a fundamental right, while the European Union’s revised Drinking Water Directive requires Member States to improve access to water, particularly for vulnerable and marginalised groups.

Legal recognition, however, has proven most effective when accompanied by capable public institutions.

The experience of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority in Cambodia illustrates what is possible when governance reforms accompany infrastructure investment. Once characterised by high water losses, weak financial management, and widespread corruption, the utility transformed itself into one of the world’s leading public water providers through universal metering, improved operational efficiency, transparent management, and progressive tariff structures.6 Today, Phnom Penh enjoys near-universal urban water coverage while protecting affordability for low-income households.

A similarly instructive example comes from eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South Africa.[vii] Through its Free Basic Water policy, the municipality guarantees vulnerable households a minimum allocation of water free of charge, financed through increasing block tariffs that require higher-volume consumers to pay proportionately more.8 The model demonstrates that equity and financial sustainability need not be competing objectives. Well-designed pricing systems can simultaneously protect vulnerable households, recover operating costs, and expand access.

Taken together, these experiences underscore an important lesson. The Human Right to Water and Sanitation does not deliver results simply because it exists as an international norm; its true value lies in its ability to shape domestic institutions, guide public investment, and strengthen accountability. The unfinished nature of the global agenda should therefore not obscure the considerable progress already achieved or the practical lessons it offers for accelerating universal access.

The Unfinished Agenda

Recognising progress is not the same as declaring victory. Despite significant advances over the past 16 years, universal access to safe water and sanitation remains one of the world’s most pressing development challenges. More than 2.1 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water at home, while 3.4 billion do not have access to safely managed sanitation.5 These gaps are not simply the result of technical constraints; they reflect persistent weaknesses in law, finance, infrastructure, and governance.

Are Governments Simply Technophobic?

By Muthi Nhlema. Re-blogged from Are Governments Simply Technophobic?, LinkedIn. Photo: local government extension using a mobile phone for data collection, Malawi.

Mutala Abdul-Mumin and I recently co-hosted a RWSN – Rural Water Supply Network webinar examining how countries are using water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) data to support progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 6 targets for #water. More than 240 people joined, and the discussion ran long so we couldn’t cover everything in the time available. A few observations on government adoption of digital technologies stood out, and I wanted to share them.

Firstly, governments recognize the value of data. It is sometimes assumed that governments remain indifferent to evidence, but the presentations from Ghana and Sierra Leone suggested a different picture. There is a clear interest in having a firmer grip on data, provided it is relevant to the decisions governments actually face (that is, addressing actual pain points) rather than information collected for its own sake. Sierra Leone’s use of WASH Accounts to track how financial resources are allocated, and whether they reach sustainable water and sanitation services, illustrated how data was responding to a question the government genuinely had. Because it answered a real question, the incentive to adopt and implement was already there.

Secondly, governments are increasingly embracing digitization. The move from paper-based methods toward digital systems was all the talk across the continent more than a decade ago. The session indicated that this transition is now underway in practice, with both Ghana and Sierra Leone taking different paths to migrating from paper to digital systems and even further to more centralized systems. This is no easy feat though; Sierra Leone has been on this data journey for more than four years and is not done yet, but they are still driving and leading the process.

Thirdly, digitization appears to be broadening ambition. The World Health Organisation presentation highlighted institutional fragmentation (WASH responsibilities being split across different ministries) as one of the most consistent systemic barriers to data-driven decision-making. Governments, using digital tools, are stepping up to address this barrier. In Ghana, in particular, they are leading to make sure WASH data serves more than just the ministry responsible for water, but also other strategic sectors such as health and education. This is a considerable undertaking that will require sustained resources and coordination across government departments, but the willingness to pursue this was evident and shows how digital tools have opened up options that weren’t on the table before.

Lastly, and interestingly given our times, a comment from a participant concerning artificial intelligence made me reflect on one key lesson I believe we can take forward from the digitization experience. When I asked the speakers what role they saw for AI in their work, both countries described a deliberate, sequential approach, meaning they preferred to address governance, financing and underlying systems gaps first BEFORE introducing AI as an additional layer. It was a measured response, and a clear signal that both countries want to move at their own pace. Given the impact AI has had across the world, do you blame them? Learning from the digitization experience, this measured response was not necessarily surprising. The ‘fail fast’ culture may suit NGOs and the private sector, but governments need more time to weigh effectiveness against trade-offs, especially on tax-payer funded services such as water supply.

So, if I had to wrap this up under one simple lesson from this webinar, it would be this: governments are not necessarily technophobic, they are technocautious. And with the current push, mostly via philanthropy, to scale new technologies through government systems, this is a valuable lesson to keep in mind. If nothing else, it could help manage expectations around the pace of government adoption. Fascinating stuff!

My thanks to Fiona Gore (WHO), Suzzy Abaidoo (Ghana) and DAUDA KAMARA (Sierra Leone) for their contributions, and to all who attended. The recording are currently available on the RWSN website for those who missed the webinar or would wish to revisit the discussion. Links can be found below:

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/1200088893
Recording on YouTube: https://youtu.be/k7Mn7CIXkMU
Slide deck: https://www.rural-water-supply.net/en/resources/1368-early-2026-webinar-series

Where Water and Energy meet

By Sean Furey. Re-blogged from where Water and Energy meet, LinkedIn.

I have to credit the likes of Patrick Moriarty , IRCWASH, Bethlehem Mengistu Agenda for Change and Duncan McNicholl for getting me back into #SystemsThinking, which I had obsessed over 20 years ago when working on integrated water management withing urban and catchment master-planning for the Environment Agency but once I moved on it faded into the background.

Then, a while back, Tom Chaplin and The Stone Family Foundation asked me whether the private-sector run water mini-grids that they had been supporting in Cambodia were to be found anywhere else in the world. Using the power of the RWSN – Rural Water Supply Network and our network of networks I tried to find any examples around the world that had similarities. I wasn’t very successful. However, as a by-product, I learned a lot about electricity mini-grids and this, along with an experience of meeting village micro-hydropower entrepreneurs in Myanmar with Dipti Vaghela and Hedi Feibel slowly baked into an obsession: could the parallel systems of rural #water supply and rural #energy supply be brought together?

So, I had great discussions over the last year with David Lecoque and Jens Jæger at Alliance for Renewable Electrification and internally, with the RWSN Executive Committee – particularly with James Origa, Ph.D and Diane Arjoon when it came to the #Mission300 – the ambitious World Bank/AfDB investment programme for electrification for 300 million people across Africa.

Attending the #EAIF2026 conference in Nairobi recently, I listened to some great speakers (learned a load of new acronyms and jargon) and had a range of really interesting conversations, some brief, some in depth with wonderfully open, helpful people, including Cornay Keefer , Ravishka Jairam and Prince Innocent from Schneider Electric ; Karin Jeanneret Vezzini from ennos ag ; Jakub Vrba from the Energy Saving Trust ; Mihaela Chirca from Expertise France ; Vivian Vendeirinho ; Leonard D’Cunha ; Dr. Georgia Badelt ; Petteri Pulli ; Sisty Basil ; Elizabeth (Lizzie) Biney-Amissah ; Kondwani Gondwe ; Janos Bonta ; Lena Musoka, MPH, MSc and many more.

Some of my current thoughts on the water + energy link

The graphic is my attempt to distill what I’ve learned through all of this (trying to avoid a systems diagram with lots of squiggly arrows) to identify some leverage points where the two sectors could reinforce each other. Right now, the urban way of thinking and working dominates: water and energy are separate and there are very good reasons for doing that; but applying urban logic to rural areas, with lower populations densities, different economies and different social and cultural norms, does not have great track record.

Instead, how about focusing attention on these three leverage points where the two systems intersect:

From Declarations to Delivery: The Case for Integrated Implementation Systems in Africa’s 2026 Water Agenda

Blog by Peter Wanyangi & Ida Githu (Dr.), Managing Partner, EED Advisory.

Africa Water Policy Moment: Converging Programmes, Fragmented Delivery

Africa is experiencing one of its most significant water policy moments in decades. In February 2026, African leaders adopted the African Union’s (AU) Water Vision 2063 and Policy, alongside the declaration of 2026 as the Year of Water and Sanitation. This vision recognizes water and sanitation not only as a social service, but also as catalysts for economic growth, food security, and climate resilience, calling on African governments to “position water as a strategic asset for industrialization, agriculture and energy, and an indispensable enabler of primary national development objectives.”

Within weeks of the AU declaration, the World Bank Group launched the Water Forward Initiative at its Spring Meetings in April 2026. The initiative aims to ‘make water systems investable, scalable, and capable of supporting prosperity at scale’. As World Bank Group President Ajay Banga put it, “Water is foundational to how economies function. When water systems work, farmers produce, businesses operate, and cities attract investment.”

Central to this ‘water policy moment’ is a recognition of the economic value of water and the dependence of other sectors on this critical resource. Indeed, water is said to underpin health, food systems, energy, and an estimated 1.7 billion jobs worldwide.

The question then becomes: how do we ensure that these high-level declarations are delivered to local communities, and particularly rural African communities that remain largely underserved?

This question is especially pertinent given other major development programmes advancing in parallel with the water initiatives across the continent, which are relevant to delivering the economic potential of water but are not necessarily presented as such. For instance, there is the Mission 300 initiative, developed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, which targets electricity access for 300 million Africans by 2030. There is also the agriculture-focused programme, AgriConnect, also developed by the World Bank and aimed at improving smallholder productivity, food systems, and rural incomes targeting 300 million smallholder farmers globally by 2030, with country compacts already launched in Senegal, Guinea, Ghana and Angola. The physical infrastructure component of AgriConnect recognizes that ‘irrigation, transportation corridors such as roads and railways, and electricity form the backbone of a strong agriculture value chain’.

While the World Bank/AfDB programmes, along with the African Union’s policy framework, were not designed as a single integrated framework, their implementation realities converge at the community level. Reliable water access underpins irrigation and agricultural productivity; energy is needed to pump, treat, and distribute that water; and water and energy systems both become more viable when anchored in productive agricultural demand. As a result, rural development, and specifically economic outcomes in water, energy, and agriculture, are increasingly interdependent, a practical convergence reflecting the logic of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems nexus.

A useful nexus level implementation lever: PUE & MUS

A conversation at this year’s Energy Access Investment Forum pointed to the convergence of two common yet often unlinked approaches as a low-hanging starting point in delivering these high-level declarations to local communities: Productive Use of Energy (PUE) and Multiple-Use Water Services (MUS). PUE is an increasingly popular approach within the energy sector that refers to the use of energy to create value, be it in the form of productivity or income, employment, or reduced hardship. PUE largely entails using decentralized energy systems (for example, mini-grids and solar home systems) to support income-generating activities. This includes irrigation, agro-processing, cold storage, and small enterprise development. PUE approaches have demonstrated consistent livelihood gains across the region: solar irrigation in Ethiopia has helped over 3,199 households diversify crops and extend cultivation through dry seasons, while solar agro-processing in Uganda has enabled women-led enterprises to reduce post-harvest losses and generate new income streams, with one solar dryer installation alone yielding over US$2,382 in additional income for 90 smallholder women farmers.

Across many African rural contexts, however, mini-grids, a more economical electrification option compared to extension of the main grid, face viability challenges due to limited demand concentrated only in household consumption. Without productive demand, revenue streams remain insufficient for sustainability.

Ainslie Street Advisory: Facilities Readiness Assessment

Blog written by William Haggerty, Founder + Principal at Ainslie Street Advisory

At a rural district hospital in West Africa, a medical oxygen production plant went down for scheduled maintenance and a two-day job took almost a week – because the hospital didn’t have a consistent water supply. Replacing a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen plant’s zeolite molecular sieve requires clean water to flush the pressure vessels, and submersible pumps require electricity, and the grid is intermittent, and fuel is expensive, and so the maintenance team waited for power, to get water, to clean the pressure vessels, to put the PSA oxygen plant back into service. Meanwhile, the clinical team burned through days of backup cylinder inventory until the oxygen plant finally came back online. This kind of downtime chain reaction happens all the time in limited-resource healthcare facilities [1], and it almost never gets spotted in advance.

All WASH practitioners working in healthcare delivery understand that reliable potable water supply is non-negotiable for safe clinical procedures, patient hydration and nutrition, and effective infection prevention and control, but according to WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program data from 2023, only 60% of healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa had access to basic water services (defined as an improved water source on the healthcare facility premises)[2]. What’s not often considered is that a reliable water supply is also critical to facilities’ operations and maintenance, and when it’s interrupted, the ripple effects show up in places a WASH assessment would never look – like PSA oxygen plant downtime.

Ainslie Street Advisory developed the Facilities Readiness Assessment (FRA) to catch healthcare infrastructure failures before they happen. The FRA covers water and sanitation alongside electrical infrastructure, medical oxygen supply, waste management, and operations and maintenance, and includes references such as Médecins Sans Frontières’ Public Health Engineering in Precarious Situations and the WHO/UNICEF WASH in Health Care Facilities Global Baseline Report. In the example above, the FRA would have flagged the gaps in power, water, and medical O₂ supply before the maintenance team took the plant out of service, enabling the facilities team to prepare by stockpiling a bit of fuel, filling the water tanks, and compressing a few extra oxygen cylinders before getting started. The FRA also distinguishes what matters most across a facility by specifying Critical Life Safety factors, e.g. consistent free residual chlorine monitoring is not weighted equally with sufficient handwashing points.

Fig. 1 – Facilities Readiness assessment summary page with scoring by component and separate Critical Life Safety issues

Ainslie Street Advisory is a fee-for-service infrastructure advisory firm grounded in over a decade of humanitarian and global health implementation experience. ASA deploys the Facilities Readiness Assessment at limited-resource healthcare facilities and provides additional infrastructure advisory services like pre-procurement technical assessment, capital project development support, and O+M program design. We operate globally with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa and are available for new client engagements now. Contact us at hello@ainsliestreet.com.

Ainslie Street Advisory’s Facilities Readiness Assessment is available free of charge at: https://ainsliestreet.com/FRA-tool-download.

[1] Water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity services in health care facilities: progress on the fundamentals. 2023 global report, pp. 9-11. Geneva: World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2023, link. Accessed 13 April 2026.

[2] WASH in health care facilities 2023 data update: special focus on primary health care, Geneva: World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2024, link. Accessed 13 April 2026.

How three male allies are advancing gender equity in Kenya’s water sector

Featured photo: Daily, millions of girls and women in Kenya walk for water, losing time, safety, and opportunity. Photographer: Euphresia Luseka

Blog by Euphresia Luseka, co-lead of the RWSN Leave No-one Behind theme.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) or its Executive Committee.

A Walk Before Dawn

At five in the morning, Busia County, Kenya is still wrapped in silence. But Jeruto is already walking. Fourteen years old, barefoot, a yellow jerrycan pressed into her hip. Three kilometres to water, three kilometres back.

She knows this path by heart. She also knows it is never safe. Men wait in the shadows. The price of water is sometimes not money but dignity. By the time she returns, the day has already slipped away; half her classes gone, her body exhausted, her hope dimmed.

“I was afraid,” she says. “But what choice did we have?”

This is the reality of women and girls without drinking water supplies on the premises every day stolen by the simple act of survival. And yet, here is the cruel paradox; when decisions are made about water, women are nowhere in the room. They carry the heaviest burden but hold the least power. The sector is still led by men.

That irrationality is finally being challenged. In western Kenya, three men, yes, men are ripping up the old rules of water and power. They are saying: enough. Not with platitudes, not with empty gender policies that gather dust, but with radical reforms that change who gets to sit at the table, who gets paid, who gets promoted, who gets heard.

And the truth they have stumbled into is this; Gender equity is not tokenism. It is infrastructure. It is resilience. It is the difference between a girl chained to a jerrycan and a girl being educated.

When Water Becomes Opportunity

The revolution begins small. For Jeruto, it started with the hum of a drilling rig. Just metres from her school gate, the Lake Victoria North Water Works Development Agency (LVNWWDA) sunk a borehole. Water surged from the ground, and with it, time, safety, and dignity returned to her life.

The 3 hours she once lost on the road became minutes. Within a year, girls’ local schools’ attendance had risen by nearly 30 percent.

For Joel Wamalwa, the agency’s CEO, this borehole was not just a piece of engineering. It was a revelation.

“Water unlocks education, strengthens health, reduces risks of violence, and frees women’s time for work and enterprise,” he says. “When women are included in planning and leadership, water systems become not only more equitable but more sustainable.”

Water, he insists, is not only a service. It is a multiplier.

Joel Wamalwa, CEO LVNWWDA says water is a Multiplier, Photographer: Euphresia Luseka

The Paradox of Exclusion

And yet, Joel has spent much of his career staring at a contradiction that borders on absurd. Women carry the heaviest weight of water scarcity rationing supplies, absorbing the stress of breakdowns, managing survival when systems fail. They are the first to wake, the last to sleep, the ones who walk the farthest.

But when utilities gather to make decisions on staffing, on budgets, on infrastructure women are almost invisible.

“We made choices about them without them,” he says quietly. “That was not only unjust. It was inefficient.”

The numbers from Mckinsey back him up. Utilities with gender-diverse leadership are 21 per cent more profitable. Boards with women deliver up to 95 per cent higher returns. For Joel, the conclusion is obvious: “Equity is not compliance. It’s not tokenism. It’s strategy.”

UNQUALIFIED WATER WORKERS AND FORGED CREDENTIALS: THE HIDDEN CORRUPTION UNDERMINING SDG 6

Photograph 1 Showing a Graduate in Kenya, Source: NTV Kenya

Blog by Euphresia Luseka, co-lead of the RWSN Leave No-one Behind theme.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) or its Executive Committee.

Fake Qualifications, Real Consequences: The Brenda Sulungai Case

Across Africa, water utilities are expected to be drivers of sustainable development, climate resilience, and digital transformation. Yet beneath this ambition lies a disturbing contradiction: highly complex systems are being operated by staff who, in most cases, lack even the basic credentials to do the job.

Despite major gains in infrastructure and technology investments, Kenya’s water utilities continue to underperform often not due to a lack of funding or innovation, but because of the human capital crisis festering within. I have witnessed strategic plans, technological upgrades, and donor-funded initiatives collapse under the weight of a talent base that was never prepared or licensed.

In July 2025, Brenda Nelly Sulungai a former staff at Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC), was arraigned in a Kenyan Court, for forgery, uttering a false document, and deceiving a principal to gain employment. The Sulungai case demonstrates that the underlying problem extends far beyond individual misconduct on fraudulent activities, but rather the existing system permits such deception to occur and persist undetected for long. A fundamental breakdown exists in the accountability mechanisms embedded within the Human resources ecosystem of Water Corporations and Utilities.

This blog analyses the technical, legal and operational risks posed by weak certification systems, forgery, and unqualified staffing across Kenya’s water sector. It also proposes a plan for professionalising the sector, building institutional resilience, and restoring public’s vital trust.

The Pervasive Scale of Credential Fraud

“Every academic certificate in Kenya is now questionable. Forgery is happening across all sectors including those critical to life like water and health. We cannot ignore this anymore.” –Twalib Mbarak, CEO, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC)

This stark statement captures the magnitude of Kenya’s credential fraud crisis as a structural failure that compromises public service integrity at scale as demonstrated in Box 1.

Box 1: Sector-Wide Credential Fraud Uncovered in National Audit

Following a 2022 presidential directive, the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA), in collaboration with the EACC and the Public Service Commission (PSC), audited academic and professional credentials across 400+ public institutions. Of 47,000 employment records reviewed, over 10,000 (30%) were forged or unverifiable documents. Credential fraud in Water Service Providers (WSPs) flourished under conditions of decentralised recruitment, limited HR oversight, and politicised hiring. Frontline operational roles such as meter readers, plant technicians, lab staff, and revenue officers are especially vulnerable to infiltration by individuals presenting forged or non-accredited certificates. In a coastal county, 5 out of 8; 63% of water treatment technicians lacked formal technical certification highlighting serious lapses in frontline hiring. WSPs such as Nairobi City and Garissa Water & Sewerage Company were cited for fraudulent promotions and appointments. The audit prompted a directive requiring all WSPs to submit comprehensive staff verification reports. EACC investigated over 2,000 public servants for holding fraudulent academic qualifications. In parallel, PSC has flagged more than 1,200 employees with irregular documentation in public institutions, signalling collapse in credential verification and HR governance.

“This is systemic. There are falsified documents even at PhD level, dissertations are downloaded from the internet.” – Dr. David Oginde, Chairperson, EACC

Senior public officials have not minced words. Head of Public Service Felix Koskei has declared the forged qualifications surge a ‘national emergency.’ PSC Chairman, Anthony Muchiri emphasised the urgency of cultural reform, framing the restoration of integrity as both a legal and moral imperative.

Consequently, this is not simply a matter of individual misconduct it points to a systemic failure in verification systems, risk management, and institutional accountability.

The Grave Consequences: Incompetence Endangering Lives and Undermining Progress

The human capital crisis in Kenya’s water sector driven by systemic weaknesses in credential verification, licensing, and staff training is not only an administrative oversight but threatens public health and utility performance.

Improper chlorine dosing, no action on bacteriological alerts and contaminated boreholes link to unqualified personnel, contributing to recurrent outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Therefore, Water sector HR reforms must be framed not just as a governance issue, but as a public health and national security imperative.

“You cannot digitize your way out of poor staffing. At some point, someone has to operate the system.”

The human resource crisis is also undermining the operational stability and financial viability of Kenya’s WSPs. Underqualified technical staff routinely mismanage complex systems like SCADA and GIS, leading to frequent breakdowns and service disruptions. Poorly trained revenue officers contribute to billing errors, customer dissatisfaction, and 30% revenue leakage crippling reinvestment in maintenance and training. Even as utilities embrace digitisation, adoption is hindered by a lack of skills and internal resistance to change. Without parallel investment in the human capabilities needed to run and sustain infrastructure, digital and capital investments risk failing to deliver impact.

Sustainable transformation requires human capital to be treated as a core infrastructure asset.

Systemic Vulnerabilities and Their Underlying Causes

I. Governance Deficit: Institutional Decay Through Political Capture

Kenya’s water sector suffers from a foundational governance breakdown; WASREB, the national water regulator notes a few WSPs have structured HR policies, indicating systemic weakness. Other gaps include: Outdated job descriptions, Irregular or absent performance reviews and Non-existent competency frameworks.

“Staff appointments in WSPs are frequently driven by tenure, local allegiances, or political alignment rather than technical merit. This erosion of meritocracy is neither incidental nor benign; it is indicative of deliberate political capture.”— Charles Chitechi, President, Water Sector Workers Association of Kenya (WASWAK)

Even WSP BODs that are governance bulwarks, are compromised. Opaque recruitment, undertrained members, and entrenched conflicts of interest have rendered them susceptible to patronage.

This politicisation has real operational costs, including poor service delivery, stagnant capacity, and a rise in credential forgery.

II. Regulatory Void: Absence of Mandatory Professional Licensing

Despite being designated as Kenya’s 16 critical infrastructure sectors, the water sector lacks a national mandatory licensing framework. Unlike medicine or engineering, no statutory barrier prevents an unqualified person from operating a treatment plant. Training institutions exist, including KEWI, NITA, and TVETs, but certification is inconsistent, and unenforced. Most alarming is the absence of a centralised professional registry, allowing forgeries to pass undetected unless exposed by whistleblowers.

Kenya’s current policy approach enables fraud by omission. The lack of a licensing regime is not a gap; it is a deliberate vulnerability.

III. Investment Blind Spot: Human Capital as the Missing Infrastructure

According to WASREB, Kenya’s WSPs spend less than 1% of OPEX on staff training, compared to the 5%-7% benchmark in high-performing WSPs globally. This chronic underinvestment in people creates a compounding deficit: Stagnant skills lead to operational bottlenecks, Low morale drives attrition and disengagement and Poor efficiency increases non-revenue water (NRW).

“You cannot digitize your way out of poor staffing. At some point, someone has to operate the system.”

A study by AfDB found that targeted training investment can lead to 20%-30% efficiency gains. The false economy of skipping training leads to far greater costs through system failures and revenue loss.

These figures make the business case clear. Training is not a cost; it is a strategic investment with measurable returns.

IV. Project Design Fallacy: Infrastructure Without Operators

Despite significant investments in tools such as GIS mapping, NRW audit software, and digital billing systems, Kenya’s utilities remain trapped in underperformance.

From experience, the primary reason infrastructure projects fail is they’re often designed for a workforce that does not yet exist. Few pause to ask: Who will operate, manage, and sustain these systems?

This leads to predictable implementation failures. Development partners often assume that technology adoption is a standalone solution, overlooking the critical human capability gap.

Table 1 Showing Summary of Systemic Failures and Strategic Fixes

Root Problem	Underlying Cause	Strategic Fix
Politicized HR and opaque recruitment	Governance failure	Independent oversight and merit-based systems
Weak mandatory licensing	Regulatory neglect	National framework aligned with global standards
Minimal training investment	Financial and strategic myopia	Mandated 5% OPEX for staff development
Failed technology implementations	Ignored human capacity gap	Capacity-first planning and project sequencing

Towards Resilience: Five Strategic Levers to Professionalize Kenya’s Water Sector

Kenya’s water sector is confronting a systemic talent crisis, addressing these challenges requires a structural response anchored in global best practices, informed by local constraints, and focused on long-term institutional resilience. This plan outlines 4 interlocking strategic levers designed to professionalize the sector and establish talent as a core infrastructure asset.

Lever	Core Insight	Priority Actions	Strategic Shift	Expected Outcome
Proactive Credential Verification	Shift from post-hire audits to real-time identity checks	Integrate KNQA/KUCCPS into hiring- Enforce role-based access protocols. Adopt zero-trust frameworks	Link credential verification to hiring and promotions	Pre-employment fraud prevention; increased hiring integrity
Mandatory Licensing for Technical Roles	Legalise role-based licensing to ensure competence	Establish national licensing board- Align with NQFs- Phase rollout starting with public-facing roles	Make licensing a prerequisite for key technical roles	Professionalised, accountable workforce
Performance-Driven HR Governance	Replace tenure-based hiring with performance-linked systems	Implement HR scorecards tied to KPIs- Map skills to close gaps- Link career progression to performance	Institutionalise meritocracy and depoliticise HR	Talent aligned with service outcomes; improved retention
Strategic Learning Investment	Treat training as core infrastructure, not a cost centre	Mandate 5% OPEX for learning- Deploy centralized Learning Management System- Align training to operational KPIs	Make capacity-building part of financial and project planning	Technically agile, continuously upskilled workforce

Conclusion: Talent Is Infrastructure

Kenya’s water systems are only as effective as the people who plan, operate, and maintain them. As the World Bank warns, weak water institutions can turn climate risks into crises undermining resilience across health, agriculture, and energy systems.

The Brenda Nelly Sulungai case shows credential fraud is not just a governance lapse it’s a national risk multiplier. Amid climate stress and population growth, human error becomes infrastructure failure.

Reform must begin and end with people. Priority actions include:

Verifying identities and qualifications through real-time credential checks
Mandating professional licensing to close technical regulatory gaps
Investing in structured, ongoing training
Aligning performance systems with merit-based progression
Fostering a culture of accountability, technical rigor, and service

These steps reflect a central truth: talent is infrastructure.

Former President Mwai Kibaki, UNESCO’s Special Envoy for Water in Africa, put it clearly: “We need to commit ourselves to turning actions into real reforms… and together we can make Africa water secure and peaceful.”

From overseeing drilling operations to supervising them for the client: field realities from Uganda

By Ayebale Ared (Welthungerhilfe)

With this blog, I would like to share a few short reflections from my experiences overseeing and supervising drilling activities over the past ten years, both from the contractor’s and the INGO/client’s perspectives.

Figure 1: Ayebale Ared on the field (Welthungerhilfe)

From the drilling contractor’s side – overseeing drilling operations

I was fortunate to work with a drilling firm that prioritized quality, accountability, and training. The work culture encouraged flexibility, allowing us to try out different drilling methodologies. One of the most valuable aspects was the emphasis on real-time logging and decision-making based on live site observations. As the overseer of the drilling operations, I had to be physically present in the field, equipped with a laptop, drilling logs, a handheld GPS, a tape measure, a V-notch Weir, a dip meter, an E.C & a pH meter, and a camera, to support real time supervision and technical decisions as drilling progressed.

There was no remote oversight; everything was site-based and collaborative. Communication within the team was strong both for daily updates and for collectively addressing any issues that had financial or technical implications.

**Figure 2 (above) Sample box containing drill cuttings** (Source: Ayebale Ared)

However, there were limitations.

At the time, our machinery could not compete for larger contracts, particularly those requiring the drilling of production boreholes with casing diameters larger than 5″ internal diameter (ID). While we successfully drilled several open-hole design boreholes, which are suitable for handpumps these cannot be upgraded to accommodate technologies such as solar-powered water systems (SPWS) due to initial design constraints.

**Figure 3 (above) Water Sampling during borehole development showing decreasing turbidity** (Source: Ayebale Ared)

From the Client’s Side (INGO) – supervising drilling

Switching to the client’s side offered me the opportunity to work with a range of drilling firms year after year. By then, I had completed the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) Professional Drilling and Borehole Management course (2019), and I was actively applying the knowledge in the field. I have worked with drillers with different equipment, resulting in more efficient drilling, constructing cased, rather than open holes. I also have had the chance to mentor and train new supervisors in professional supervision practices, proper borehole logging, and how to make sound real-time decisions at the site.

However, not all experiences have been positive

Remote, or part time supervision is common with a bigger percentage of the drilling firms I have worked with, often resulting in decisions made by drillers to minimize cost rather than address real-time field conditions which are not supervised in the field by the client. Some drilling firms opt for untrained, inexpensive overseers, which undermines the quality of work. As an example, many have no idea what real time logging is but just write a number of pipes and send short video clips to their bosses in office who make remote decisions. This usually becomes a challenge with the client’s supervisor ends up being painted bad as “a bad guy”. Without a qualified client supervisor on-site, the narrative of events can shift dramatically. I’ve observed poor siting practices, with boreholes positioned near anthills or trees leading to complex drilling challenges and post-installation issues such as silting, root intrusion, and compromised water quality. This has been subsequently verified through borehole video inspections and microbial tests. Additionally, poor gravel packing techniques have led to bridging, and inadequate borehole development has left screens poorly cleaned and functioning below standard.

**Figure 4 (above) Measuring drill pipe lengths (Source: Ayebale Ared)**

These reflections underline the critical importance of professional supervision, well-trained personnel, good oversight by the drilling contractor, and appropriate on-site decision-making throughout the drilling process.

I hope these insights are helpful as we continue to improve and uphold quality in our water supply interventions.

Ayebale Ared has over 10 years of experience in the water sector, specializing in WASH programs, borehole drilling, and rehabilitation in Uganda. He has worked on both the contractor and client sides, gaining a well-rounded perspective on best and worst drilling supervision experiences and practices