Determinants of water accessibility in Kenya

Abstract

The study examines the determinants of safe water accessibility in Kenya. Cross sectional data analysis technique is used with a sample of 41 districts for the year 2000. The safe water access model is estimated by the OLS method. Results show that safe water accessibility is explained by water infrastructure, distance to water source and water morbidity. The findings indicate that a 10% increase in water infrastructure results in a 10.1% increase in safe water access; a 1% decrease in time taken to fetch water results to a 0.017% increase in safe water access and; a 1% fall in water morbidity implies a 0.038% rise in safe water access. Strikingly, water tariff effect on safe water necessibility result was revealed to be insignificant. Therefore, to increase safe water accessibility. efforts must be made to deal with non-operational water infrastructure. non-maintained water infrastructure problems and water quality. Current efforts by the government and individual organizations to improve and construct new water infrastructure need to be encouraged.