Around the world people use bank machines to access cash: but in the Kenyan capital’s crowded slums, people now use similar machines to access an even more basic requirement – clean water.

Four water dispensing machines have been installed in Nairobi slums that operate like cash machines – with customers able to buy affordable water using smart cards.

It has cut costs dramatically, and is helping improve health, residents say.

Previously people living in Nairobi’s cramped slums resorted to buying water from sellers who dragged handcarts loaded with jerry cans or oil drums into the narrow streets. That water was often dirty, sometimes taken illegally from broken pipes.

But the new machines, installed by the government-run Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company (NWSC), allow people to purchase water directly and up to six times cheaper.

Previously, people would buy 20 litres of water (5 US gallons) in a jerry can from a street seller for three shillings, often from unreliable sources.

That price – the equivalent of 3 US pennies – was difficult for many slum residents who are unemployed or who only occasionally find work for $2 a day.

Now the machines sell the same for just half a shilling

For the government, the machines allow them to make a profit, as water was previously stolen from them, with people cracking pipes to siphon off water to sell. “The project is commercially viable,” NWSC chief Philip Gichuki said. “Illegal water services are going to die off because residents are assured of good water quality.”

bbabo.Net