Video shows prepaid card used to buy water in Malawi, not Kenyans using ID to get water

“Meanwhile, in Africa (Kenya?), drinking water is available with ID cards. The country is actively implementing a program until 2030 on "digital control and accounting of valuable resources," reads a tweet posted on March 20, 2023, that has been shared more than 2,000 times.

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Screenshot showing the false tweet, taken on April 5, 2023

The same claim was also shared on Facebook.

The footage shows a woman pressing a button on a wall and scanning a white card, which starts the flow of water from a tap.

But the clip was not shot in Kenya and people in the country do not use national identification cards to obtain water.

Clip from Malawi

After scanning her card at the water kiosk, a woman in the clip speaks in Chichewa, a local language in Malawi.

“This is modern, I have to call my mother and tell her about it,” she says.

A logo for the Lilongwe Water Board (archived here), the water service provider in Malawi’s capital, and the logo for iMoSyS (archived here), a Malawian tech company, can be seen branded on the water kiosk in the clip.

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A screenshot showing a section of the water kiosk that shows the Lilongwe Water Board logo

According to the Lilongwe Water Board, E-Madzi Innovation is a prepaid electronic system which allows clients to use prepaid cards to pay for clean water from designated kiosks in Lilongwe.

The automated water vending machines were installed by the company iTap.

ITap CEO Mayamiko Nkoloma told AFP Fact Check that “the video was shot in Lilongwe in 2020”.

Nkoloma further said that the company has not implemented such a project in Kenya and that the pre-payment card “doesn’t track users' digital activity”.

Kenya’s access to water

According to UNICEF, only 59 percent (archived here) of Kenyans have access to safe drinking water.

Kenyans living in cities tend to prefer buying bottled water while a majority of people in rural areas drink purified rain or borehole water.

Kenya’s information ministry told AFP Fact Check that Kenyans do not use ID to get drinking water.

It added that the country is working towards using technology to supply utilities, like water.

"This will be done through the integration of systems to monitor water quality, power outages, and sewer leakages, among other disruptions”, the ministry said.