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83 National Waters Kenya National Water Policy Silas Mutia M’Nyiri Introduction Policy is a set of principles which is used as a basis for making decisions to further certain objectives. Almost any institution, whether public or private, operating for profit or voluntary, requires a policy to guide its operations and provide a frame of reference for its members. Ideally, a public policy is to be codified in the form of a written policy statement which has been formally endorsed by a body with the requisite authority (such as, in the case of a national policy statement, the cabinet). Particularly in the water sector, it is desirable that non-state actors be involved in the formulation of policy. This ensures that the policy is adapted to the circumstances prevailing in the country and that people will be more aware and more committed to ensuring that the intentions enunciated in the policy statements are in fact implemented.1 In many cases, policies are not codified in this de jure way. What actually happens in practice in the management of water can be analysed to deduce a de facto policy which may differ from what has been written or from what has been stated by government ministers or others who seek to enunciate water policies. Policy is also implicit in legislation. Ideally, the national water law will provide the legal framework for the implementation of national water policy, but again there may be observable differences between articulated policy, the codified legal framework and what is done in practice.2 These differences are not surprising or entirely undesirable. As circumstances, national aspirations and the dominant ideological framework change, so must the water policy change. A revision of policy may well start with an agreed water policy becoming less applicable and the level of adherence to the policy decreasing. To fill the gap, informal policy statements are made and debated. At some stage, a full-blown discussion of water policy becomes necessary, leading eventually to a new water policy statement, revised water law and new water sector institutions. The initial water sector reform that took place after independence started following the launching of a policy document “Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965 on African Socialism and its Application to Kenya”. This paper directed the Government’s policy towards priority areas for the African population, which were identified as poverty, illiteracy and diseases. The policy required that the 84 core infrastructure for economic and social activity be in Government hands. Accordingly, the Government was engaged in all productive activities, including the provision of water and sanitation services, often at minimal charge to the consumer. In addition, the Government undertook programs to provide land to the people and some forest conservation areas were earmarked for human settlement. This situation undermined the sustainability of the water resource base. In 1974, owing to the growing involvement of the Government in the development of water and sanitation services, the Water Department, under the then Ministry of Agriculture, was elevated to a full Ministry of Water Development. The Ministry intensified the Government’s ambitious water development programme and envisioned achieving the provision of water for all by the year 2000. Consequently the Government became involved in complete management of almost 100 urban water supplies and 600 rural water supplies. After some time it was realised that the Government was not the best placed institution to undertake the role of water supply and sanitation provision. Water resources management was not regarded as a priority during this time.3 The First National Master Water Plan (NMWP) was an excellent study which laid the foundation for the subsequent water development project implemented in the 1980 to 1990 decade. Between 1990 and 1992 the Government undertook the Study on National Water Master Plan in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The objective of the study on the National Water Master Plan, 1992 was to propose a nationwide framework of orderly planning and development of water resources in the country. This plan recommended for formulation of a water policy which culminated in the policy document in the water sector that was published in 1999 as Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1999, the “National Policy on Water Resources Management and Development.” In order to implement the policy, the then Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources begun by reviewing the Water Act (Cap 372) to spearhead the reform process. A new legislation, Water Act 2002 was enacted and came into operation on 18 March, 2003. It...

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