How we approach this work.
Water and sanitation infrastructure across East Africa faces a specific compounding risk: assets built without drought or flood resilience in mind, financed without a clear view of technical condition, and operated without the institutional capacity to sustain service delivery. Windhill's WSS practice works across all three layers — engineering, finance and institutions.
On the technical side, we design and appraise climate-resilient water supply systems built to withstand drought and flood risk, including solar-powered water infrastructure, borehole rehabilitation, and water systems assessment and rehabilitation. We lead sector-wide WASH assessments — including across Kakuma and Kalobeyei — evaluating the functionality and performance of boreholes, solar pumping infrastructure, pipelines and storage systems, and identifying investment priorities for rehabilitation and upgrading.
On the finance and advisory side, we conduct WASH infrastructure portfolio reviews and technical due diligence and asset assessment for financiers and development partners, and support WSS service delivery strengthening and market-based sanitation approaches — including innovative finance, PPP and market development models that help water and sanitation enterprises scale.
Throughout, we prioritise regulatory and policy advisory — navigating national WSS policy, licensing and utility regulation — water security and resource management, and stakeholder consultations and capacity building that build institutional governance strong enough to outlast any single project. Our team has coordinated river abstraction, solar pumping and ozone water treatment projects, conducted baseline and feasibility assessments for irrigation and domestic water supply, and engaged donors including the World Bank, AfDB, USAID, AFD, DANIDA and DGIS on SDG 6 and climate adaptation.
