Clean water pathways under devolved water provision: Access, affordability and decentralized innovations in Kenya

Sustainable Development Goal 6.1 commits nations to achieve universal access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030, yet progress remains critically insufficient, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya exemplifies these challenges: following its 2010 constitutional transformation, water service delivery was devolved to 47 counties, creating a patchwork of local water markets with varying quality standards and price structures. We analyze household water access under this devolved governance system using data from 1,632 household-water source observations across 13 peri-urban and urban communities collected over three years (2023–2025). Our findings reveal a fragmented, market-driven landscape where 68.8% of households navigate water insecurity by accessing multiple sources. Costs vary substantially even among commonly used sources, with private vendors averaging 49.23 Kenyan Shillings (KES) per 20-liter container compared to 15.70 (±24.08) KES at government-serviced WASCO kiosks. The overall affordability is very low compared to developed countries with an 833% higher cost per liter of water compared to residents in Texas (USA) and with Kenyans spending approximately 25% of their income on water as compared to Texas residents (0.69%) and Indian residents (2.5 % in urban areas and 15% in rural areas). Household water procurement strategies vary based on cost, quality, and convenience, with distance to sources, transportation methods (including head-carrying, bicycles, and donkeys), and intended use (drinking, cooking, washing, bathing) all influencing source selection. Critically, we find a complete absence of “safely managed” water pathways meeting SDG 6.1 criteria across all study communities; even the highest-quality pathways achieve only “basic” service levels. We examine Solar Water Farms (SWFs)—decentralized, solar-powered reverse osmosis systems—as a socio-technical intervention, finding that communities with SWF access experience an 18.3 percentage point reduction in self-reported illness and 15.67 KES lower costs per 20-liter container. These findings demonstrate how Kenya’s devolution and commercialization approach has created access pathways but failed to ensure equity or quality, suggesting that achieving universal safely managed water access will require substantial public investment rather than continued reliance on market-driven pathways alone.