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The Nairobi slums have never had reliable access to safe water. Unless the government addresses this and other basic needs, life for the city’s poorest residents cannot improve.
The slums, where I grew up and now work every day, were never a great place to live. And for most slum dwellers, conditions are worsening. According to the Nairobi Cross Sectional Survey, residents of informal settlements continue to have limited access to health care and family planning services, inadequate access to water and sanitation, poor housing conditions, limited employment opportunities and almost no public sector services.
These problems persist in part because…