Lake Victoria South Water Service Board (LVSWSB) CEO Moses Agumba has said land shortage is affecting implementation of water projects in Western Kenya.
Agumba said people are always not ready to sell their land where the development of the water and sanitation projects are supposed to be implemented as the cost of land is also high.
Speaking in Kisumu during the presentation of the LVSWSB Annual Stakeholders report 2014/15 on Friday, he said due to this, many projects are lost or go unimplemented by the board.
He said the county government should look into ways of providing land to allow implementation of various projects within the counties.
The CEO said the counties are the main shareholders within the sectors since water is already devolved.
“This requires cooperation and sharing of all investments plans and coming up with a cooperative framework of execution of these plans. This will enable the esteemed stakeholders realise the constitutional right of access to safe water,” he said.
He said in order to curb these challenges; they are involving the national and county governments to assist in securing water projects development.
“We are embracing gravity water system and renewable energy such as solar and wind to mitigate high energy costs," he said.
The CEO said they are also increasing their counterpart funding as a way to reduce the high operation costs mainly caused by pumping water.
Agumba said other challenges include, managing transition for water service providers owned by former local councils to new county government and rapid growth in urban centers especially in the informal settlements amongst others.