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Nairobi — 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.

In a bid to boost access to 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.

“It’s pure and good for cooking, and above all it is affordable,” said Peter Ngui, who runs a small street restaurant. “I used to get water from far away, but this water system is closer to my place of work.”

Previously people living in Nairobi’s cramped slums struggled to get clean water cheaply.

Without water pipes or plumbing in the tin-hut districts, residents 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 far more cheaply — than before.

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. For the people of the slums, the clean water provided is cheaper than that sold before.

“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.”

The new machines have made water up to six times cheaper. Previously, people would buy 20 litres of water in a jerry can from a street seller for three shillings, often from unreliable sources.

The machines are operated by local residents — youth and women groups — who earn 40 percent of the profits from the water sales as an incentive to ensure they are kept running and the system is not vandalised. — AFP