Feature: Water dispensers quench thirst in Kenyan slums

Lack of drinking water has long been a problem for some 400,000 people living in Mathare slums in the suburb of the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

"Mothers, in particular, can hardly perform their duties whenever taps run dry. The children are forced to abscond class work as they trek miles to look for water," said local resident Onyango Alendo.

The monopolists hoard the water and inflate the price, causing suffering to the residents, he said.

Francisca Mbenya, a mother of three, used to spend one U.S. dollar per day for five jerrycans of water from the vendors -- for her, not a small amount of money.

Thanks to a joint program launched this week by the city water utility and a Danish firm Grundfos, the community is now provided with drinking water through water dispensers for a negligible charge.

Mbenya and her neighbors have received smart cards. Now they can use the card at the dispenser to buy a 20 liter jerrycan of water at one cent U.S. dollar.

"The agony of walking long distances to fetch water from (water) kiosks is now history. We have endured stress for too long as taps run dry and opportunistic vendors make a kill from our plight," Mbenya told Xinhua as she was moving three jerrycans of water bought at the dispenser.

"The stress of waking up at dawn to look for an elusive commodity is long gone. For the last two days, I have been spared the agony of waking up early," said another resident Magdalene Wanjiru, a mother of two, as she waited for her turn at the water dispenser.

Communicable diseases have been a norm in the slums due to drinking water scarcity, while Mbenya now is optimistic that the diseases that often harm her children could be avoided with the emergence of the dispensers.

"The water we purchased from vendors is of questionable sources and is to blame for recurrent typhoid infections on my children. We are now obtaining the commodity at a very friendly cost from a reputable source," she said.

According to the United Nations(UN)-Habitat, 65 percent of Nairobi's population lives in the slums where basic services like water, sanitation and health are inadequate.

Slum dwellers in Nairobi usually pay three times the usual price for drinking water, according to the UN agency.

Water dispensers have been so far placed in four areas of Nairobi.

"The dispensers have made it impossible for slum dwellers to access water in a dignified manner. Households will spend less than one dollar per month to purchase water from the dispenser," said Philip Gichuki, Managing Director of Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company.

"At least now there is a sigh of relief since we can purchase water from a formal entity at a reasonable cost," Alendo said. Endi