Kenya is one of four countries among the first likely beneficiaries of an African Development Bank-funded project that seeks to improve access to clean water by the urban poor.

AfDB has named Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and Sierra Leone as four out of five countries that could be picked to kick-start the African Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative (AUSII) project this year.

The project—which is co-funded by the AfDB and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—seeks to fund business innovations that seek to provide “robust, affordable, financially and environmentally sustainable inclusive sanitation services for urban dwellers with a focus on the urban poor”.

The project is set to be rolled out for the first time this year with an initial grant of $6 million (Sh979 million).

“The target is to select five countries primarily based on their readiness for a smooth rollout of AUSII operational plans,” said the AfDB.

“Initial focus countries could include Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, and Sierra Leone.”

The project would enable local firms that come up with innovative solutions to help Kenya’s urban poor access clean water get financing to scale up their operations.

Such type of financing is often hard to come by from commercial lenders.

This comes at a time when millions of Kenyans living in urban areas, especially major cities such as Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu struggle to get clean water.

The population surge in these cities in recent years has placed great strain on their water infrastructure, which has failed to keep up with increased demand for water.

Kenyans living in urban areas rely on water supply from public water service providers (WSPs) as well as private water vendors who supply the commodity through bowsers and containers.

However, lack of clean water disproportionately affects the urban poor, most of whom live in slums that are not connected to piped water.

According to the Water Services Regulatory Board (Wasreb), only 62 percent of Kenya’s population live in areas where they can access water.