TITLE:
Comparing Pre-Paid Communal Water Metering and Delegated Management in Urban Poor Setting: Case Studies in Nakuru and Kisumu in Kenya
AUTHORS:
Robert Hanjahanja, Christian Omuto, Elijah Biamah
KEYWORDS:
Delegated Management Metering, Non-Revenue Water, Peri-Urban Water Supply, Pre-Paid Metering, Water Metering Management
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.6 No.4,
November
19,
2018
ABSTRACT: Water service providers face multiple challenges in their service provision.
These challenges include high non-revenue water, low water coverage, many
incidences of waterborne diseases, and high water bills, etc. This study set to
assess how changes in water metering strategies can overcome these challenges.
The study analyzed three water metering technologies for their suitability
to improve service provision. The strategies were: conventional water
metering where meter-readers collect readings for post-billing; community
prepaid metering (CPM) where meters are preloaded with tokens; and delegated
meter management (DMM) where service provision and billing is delegated
to master operators. CPM and DMM were installed in an existing
conventional network and data on commonly-used performance evaluation
parameters collected through interviews, field-visits, and existing literature.
The results portrayed CPM and DMM with positive improvements to the
conventional metering. CPM had over 70% improvements in unit cost of water
and time for water access. DMM had over 90% improvements in water
coverage and non-revenue water. In general, the study found CPM with positive
impacts on the cost of water, potable water, and time to fetching water
while DMM had positive impacts on water coverage and non-revenue water.
It’s recommended that the CPM and DMM models used in this study be
cross-tested and more individual strengths be drawn.