Kenya is classified as a water scarce country whose natural endowment of renewable freshwater is currently about 21 billion cubic meters of 647m3per capita per annum. A country is categorized “water scarce” if its renewable freshwater potential is less than 1000m3 per capita per annum. (Odira 2018). According to NCWSC, Nairobi city consumes about 500 million litres of water on a daily basis against a demand of 700 million litres. This deficit is getting worse due to urbanization. Nairobi largely sources its water from upper Tana River Basin. However this watershed is being threatened by factors such as increasing global warming and unfavorable upstream farming methods. The city cannot rely on boreholes as rampant construction has interfered with the water table resulting in a great number of these boreholes drying up. This water problem has led to Nairobians buying water from water vendors at high prices raising the cost of living. Low income families cannot afford to buy water at such high prices resulting in
their use of raw heavily polluted water sources to cater for their domestic needs. Alternative approaches need to be taken in order to bridge the deficit.