With an annual growth rate of 7% over the last two decades,
Nairobi remains one the fastest growing cities in Africa. In many
other urban centres in Kenya, rapid urbanization has placed increasing
pressure on existing services and further declines in service provision.

It is it is unrealistic to wait for large-scale urban upgrading projects to be
implemented, many of which have been promised to citizens living in
low-income urban settlements for decades. Civil society organizations,
national and local governments have to adopt new attitudes, processes and
practices to respond to the increasing demand for water and sanitation
services in informal settlements.

The right to safe, sufficient, affordable and accessible water and sanitation
is now part of the international human rights law. Yet local and central
government have as yet to develop standards, policies and regulations and
legal instruments designed to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to water.

Inclusive urban governance processes and institutions are central to fair,
transparent and accountable development programming and the delivery of the
much-needed services to the poor

Registered in 2004, the organization seeks to work in close partnership with
civil society, public and private sector organizations to achieve the following key
objectives:-

• to mobilize community, local, national and international
  resources for the development of sustainable community-managed water
  and sanitation services;
• to promote the adoption of information and communication resources
  and technologies
• to assist in the capacity building of water and sanitation
  services associations (WASSAs)in order to enable them effectively
  manage and sustain water and sanitation resources and services;
• to support the planning, building, and maintenance of
  community-based water supply and environmental sanitation systems;

Programmes are organized around 5 key thematic areas:

1. Policy research and advocacy: This programme seeks to raise
   awareness on water issues at local, national and international
   levels for concrete action to address water and sanitation
   demands (esp. the right to water and increased budgetary allocations).
   
2. Financial sustainability: This programme is designed to relate with
   community, local and central government as well as the Water
   Trust Fund to mobilize resources at community, local, national and
   international levels to develop sustainable water and sanitation
   resources and services.
   
3. Technology development: The organization sees her role as that of a
   facilitator in enabling the poor to overcome the high initial costs
   that characterize access to water, sanitation and waste management
4. Water and sanitation services associations
5. information and communication