IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jsd123/v18y2025i1p29.html

Addressing the Challenges of Economic Water Scarcity in Kenya: Multi-Barrier and Multilateral Integrated Approach Systems for Sustainable Access to Safe Drinking Water A Review

Author

Listed:
  • Caroline J. Ingati
  • John P. O. Obiero
  • Duncan O. Mbuge
  • T. O. Mbuya

Abstract

Accessibility to clean drinking water is essential to the quality of life of all humans. Water is also important in national development of a country. Kenya is faced with both physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity is due to increased water demand, limited supply of water and low rainfall whereas economic water scarcity is due to lack of sufficient financial capability to support water infrastructure. Depending on the water use, there are various techniques available for removal of harmful bacteria, water softening and removing organic particulates and other contaminants from drinking water. They range from simple to sophisticated technologies. This review focused on the economic water scarcity in Kenya which is a developing country. Aspects reviewed included- water poverty index and effects of economic water scarcity. The review methodology tool used was the water poverty index assessment tool (WPI) at which elemental parameters related to water were identified and discussed. The outcome of this research was expected to contribute in the development of affordable and sustainable purification technologies and policies that can be used to deliver safe and clean drinking water. The assessment using the Water Poverty Index (WPI) found Kenya’s WPI to be low in the range of 38-45 %, which is characterised as being severe in regard to the global water stress. Kenya’s safe yield of surface water resources and ground water was estimated to be 7.4 BCM per annum and 1.0 BCM per annum respectively. Water abstractions is estimated at 1.6 BCM per annum representing 13-19% of the available water. Challenges identified include- undeveloped water resources, low financial and institutional capacity, limited access and increased demand of water in agricultural activities such as irrigation with a declining total annual renewable water per capita in the last 50 years. Recommendations proposed as solutions that can be adopted to address economic water scarcity and consequently water stress in Kenya, include exploring sustainable low-cost purification technologies, adopting multi-barrier integrated approach system and the use of multilateral economic groups support to address economic water scarcity.

Suggested Citation

  • Caroline J. Ingati & John P. O. Obiero & Duncan O. Mbuge & T. O. Mbuya, 2025. "Addressing the Challenges of Economic Water Scarcity in Kenya: Multi-Barrier and Multilateral Integrated Approach Systems for Sustainable Access to Safe Drinking Water A Review," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 18(1), pages 1-29, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jsd123:v:18:y:2025:i:1:p:29
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/download/0/0/51124/55473
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/0/51124
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Renu Emile & John R. Clammer & Palak Jayaswal & Paribhasha Sharma, 2022. "Addressing water scarcity in developing country contexts: a socio-cultural approach," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Flannery Dolan & Jonathan Lamontagne & Robert Link & Mohamad Hejazi & Patrick Reed & Jae Edmonds, 2021. "Evaluating the economic impact of water scarcity in a changing world," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. C.A. Sullivan & J.R. Meigh & A.M. Giacomello, 2003. "The Water Poverty Index: Development and application at the community scale," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(3), pages 189-199, August.
    4. Peter Lawrence & Jeremy Meigh & Caroline Sullivan, 2002. "The Water Poverty Index:an International Comparison," Keele Economics Research Papers KERP 2002/19, Centre for Economic Research, Keele University, revised Mar 2003.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Isha Goel & Seema Sharma & Smita Kashiramka, 2020. "The Water Poverty Index: An application in the Indian context," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(3), pages 195-218, August.
    2. Sonika Redhu & Pragati Jain, 2024. "Unveiling the nexus between water scarcity and socioeconomic development in the water-scarce countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(8), pages 19557-19577, August.
    3. Badir S. Alsaeed & Dexter V. L. Hunt & Soroosh Sharifi, 2022. "Sustainable Water Resources Management Assessment Frameworks (SWRM-AF) for Arid and Semi-Arid Regions: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-31, November.
    4. Jagriti Kher & Savita Aggarwal & Geeta Punhani, 2015. "Vulnerability of Poor Urban Women to Climate-linked Water Insecurities at the Household Level: A Case Study of Slums in Delhi," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 15-40, February.
    5. He, Yongda & Du, Anna Min & Lin, Boqiang & Scrimgeour, Frank, 2025. "Energy-capital substitution, technological innovation, and monetary policy," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Wenxin Liu & Minjuan Zhao & Yu Cai & Rui Wang & Weinan Lu, 2019. "Synergetic Relationship between Urban and Rural Water Poverty: Evidence from Northwest China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-22, May.
    7. Shi, Tao & Liu, Zhi-Hua & Ragauskas, Arthur J. & Yuan, Ying-Jin & Li, Bing-Zhi, 2025. "Versatile lignin valorization drives sustainable agriculture," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    8. Hatem Jemmali & Mohamed Salah Matoussi, 2012. "A Multidimensional Analysis of Water Poverty at A Local Scale- Application of Improved Water Poverty Index for Tunisia," Working Papers 730, Economic Research Forum, revised 2012.
    9. Li, Shangge & Jian, Jinfeng & Poopal, Rama Krishnan & Chen, Xinyu & He, Yaqi & Xu, Hongbin & Yu, Huimin & Ren, Zongming, 2022. "Mathematical modeling in behavior responses: The tendency-prediction based on a persistence model on real-time data," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 464(C).
    10. Hassan Tolba Aboelnga & Lars Ribbe & Franz-Bernd Frechen & Jamal Saghir, 2019. "Urban Water Security: Definition and Assessment Framework," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-19, November.
    11. Suchitra Pandey & Geetilaxmi Mohapatra & Rahul Arora, 2025. "A temporal and spatial assessment of water stress with water poverty index: A case study of Rajasthan," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(2), pages 1643-1667, May.
    12. Itay Fischhendler & David Katz, 2013. "The use of “security” jargon in sustainable development discourse: evidence from UN Commission on Sustainable Development," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 321-342, September.
    13. Guo, Xin, 2025. "Assessing the impact of the Central Line Project of South-to-North Water Diversion on urban economic resilience: Evidence from prefecture-level cities in Henan and Hebei provinces," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    14. Omid Bozorg-Haddad & Mahdi Bahrami & Ayda Gholami & Xuefeng Chu & Hugo A. Loáiciga, 2024. "Investigation and classification of water resources management strategies: possible threats and solutions," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 120(11), pages 9867-9892, September.
    15. Anderson, Heather K. & Price, Heather & Staddon, Sam, 2023. "Water poverty in a ‘Hydro Nation’: Exploring distributional and recognitional water injustice in Scotland," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    16. A. L. Hamilton & P. M. Reed & R. S. Gupta & H. B. Zeff & G. W. Characklis, 2024. "Resilient water infrastructure partnerships in institutionally complex systems face challenging supply and financial risk tradeoffs," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    17. de Castro-Pardo, Mónica & Cabello, José Manuel & Martín, José María & Ruiz, Francisco, 2023. "A multi reference point based index to assess and monitor European water policies from a sustainability approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    18. Hatem Jemmali, 2017. "Mapping water poverty in Africa using the improved Multidimensional Index of Water Poverty," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 649-666, July.
    19. Sharma, Bharat R. & Riaz, M.V. & Pant, Dhruba & Adhikary, D.L. & Bhatt, B.P. & Rahman, H., 2010. "Water poverty in the northeastern hill region (India): Potential alleviation through multiple-use water systems: Cross-learnings from Nepal Hills," IWMI Research Reports 91466, International Water Management Institute.
    20. Elia Moretti & Michael Benzaquen, 2024. "Mitigating Farmland Biodiversity Loss: A Bio-Economic Model of Land Consolidation and Pesticide Use," Papers 2407.19749, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2025.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:jsd123:v:18:y:2025:i:1:p:29. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.