Public water companies lost Sh14.9 billion on water that was not billed to customers in the 2024/25 financial year, revealing the persistent challenge of illegal connections, leakages, and weak metering systems.
In the 2023/24 period, public water firms lost an estimated Sh11.9 billion in non-revenue water (NRW), according to the Water Ministry.
An assessment by the Water Services Regulatory Board (Wasreb) shows that NRW averaged 48 percent of the volumes produced by service providers. NRW refers to water that is produced but not billed due to leaks, theft, meter errors, or weak billing systems.
‘A persistent underlying challenge within the water services subsector remains the high level of NRW, which stood at 48 percent. Although water production increased by 9.4 percent, the volume billed rose by only 2.3 percent, indicating that a substantial portion of the additional water produced was either lost or unaccounted for,’ the regulator said.
The global benchmark for NRW is about 20 percent, meaning Kenya’s performance remains significantly off target.
‘This persistent inefficiency continues to undermine financial viability, constrain service expansion, and limit the benefits delivered to consumers. As a result, per capita consumption remained low at 26.7 litres per person per day, suggesting that increased production has not yet translated into meaningful improvements in service delivery at the consumer level,’ Wasreb said.
‘Small utilities recorded NRW levels above 31 percent, which is well into the poor performance range. Medium utilities’ performance was worse, with NRW rising sharply from 52 percent to 57 percent, reflecting severe physical losses and weak commercial controls,’ the regulator noted.
‘Overall, NRW performance is deteriorating rather than improving. Only large utilities show slight progress, while small, medium, and very large utilities are either stagnating or worsening.’
Despite the inefficiencies, total revenue in the water sector rose by 14 percent to Sh32.9 billion in the 2024/25 period, while average operation and maintenance cost coverage improved to 103 percent.
However, Wasreb cautioned that the median remained below full cost recovery, meaning more than half of utilities still cannot fully fund their operations from their own revenues. Liquidity remains weak across all utility categories, while high personnel costs continue to absorb resources that could otherwise improve service delivery and maintenance.
Anthony Njaramba, chief executive officer of the Water Services Providers Association (WASPA), said the scale of losses reflects a long-standing structural failure rather than isolated operational breakdowns.
‘For the last 20 years, non-revenue water has remained above 40 per cent. Now we are seeing figures closer to 48 per cent,’ he said.
‘That means we are not doing well. We are losing a lot of money,’ he added.
Wasreb further noted that while access to clean water is expanding, formal connectivity is growing slowly. Water connections increased by 1.3 percent and sewer connections by 0.9 percent in 2024/25, both below population growth rates.
‘More people are being reached, but durable household connections are not increasing fast enough. The largest disparities persist in rural, arid, and underserved counties, where service hours are lowest and infrastructure remains underdeveloped,’ the regulator said.