Few things are more relaxing than a hot shower at the end of the day to help the body recover. Unfortunately for most Nairobi residents, running taps and showers are luxuries reserved for a select few.

Dr. Alex Awiti, an Ecosystems Ecologist based at Aga Khan University, Nairobi, states that only 22 per cent of inhabitants of Nairobi’s informal settlement, home to over 60 per cent of Nairobi residents, have access to piped water. This 22 per cent is though subjected to Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) mischievous and punishing water distribution rationing schedule, making piped water a unreliable source of water for most.

Water mains cut cross underneath Kibera, carrying water to the surrounding golf courses and high income estates while Kibera residents are forced to walk an average distance of 40 meters to buy water from private of community owned water kiosks. To fill a twenty litre water container can cost between KES 3 to KES 5 or even KES 10 depending on the availability of the commodity. The residents, particularly women and children are at times forced to queue for up to 4 hours to get this precious commodity. In the long run, locals end up paying five to a hundred times more for water than what is paid by residents of middle and high income areas in Nairobi.

If you think this problem only affects informal settlements, then you are mistaken. Middle income areas such as Dagoreti Corner also subject to a water distribution rationing schedule.

Dagoreti Corner residents get piped water once a week; for about 4 hours, of which the weekly rationing schedule isn't assured. Other parts of Nairobi get water four days a week, this evidently reflecting Dr. Awiti’s notion that Nairobi ranks high on the league table of unlivable and inequitable cities globally.

With most of the middle income earners stuck at work standing in a long line really isn't an option. They are thus forced to buy water from water vendors. Interestingly, many privately owned water trucks have pitched camp around Dagoreti Corner, selling water to desperate residents at high price. A 10,000 liters water truck can cost you up to KES 5,000.

For most, buying water from hand cart water venders is the only affordable alternative, but even there prices aren't cheap, 20 litres cost no less than KES 20. Given that the average consumption of water in a Kenyan household is 15 litres a day, a person buying water from hand cart water vendors at KES 20 spends KES 15 daily, on average. This comes to about KES 450 a month. The average Kenyan family has 5 people. The math brings us to 75 litres a day. This comes to a minimum of KES 2,250 a month on water every month. This is significantly more than the normal water bill.

Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company though maintains’ that water supply in Nairobi is based on an equitable distribution schedule.  All estates have their days scheduled to get water.

Dr. Awiti notes that water shortage in Nairobi is acute and chronic. The prognosis is dire and could get worse, because of inexorable demand owing to rapid urban growth, declining water supplies from source areas, climate variability and change, dilapidated distribution infrastructure and stupefying ineptitude of the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company.

Dr Awiti further notes that the governments’ long-term solutions to solve Nairobi’s chronological water problems are potentially wrong headed. This is because they are trapped in the logic of a supply side paradigm. For instance, a feasibility study and master plan for developing new water sources for Nairobi and satellite towns recommends groundwater development, abstraction and diversion of three rivers to supply additional water by 2017. Why is Nairobi Water Company expanding vast resources to find new water supply sources when they cannot account for 40 to 60 per cent of the water pumped to the city? After all, charity does begin at home, doesn't it?