The Athi River, on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, is choked by plastic and other waste. There's no piped water or sewage system in the area, and drought has made clean water supplies more scarce and expensive. Twice a week, trucks with 5,000 to 10,000 liters (1,300 to 2,600 gallons) of water will fill up vending stations across Athi River, where residents can buy 20 liters (five gallons) for 20 Kenyan Shillings ($0.16). A household of four needs about five gallons a day, weekly incomes are about $13, according to data from Kenya’s Finance Ministry. Many rely on unsafe alternatives if they miss out on the trucked-in stocks. Residents take yellow jerrycans to a swamp to draw water for cooking and cleaning, leaving them vulnerable to germs and contaminants that can’t be boiled out of the water. For those whose homes are kitted out with water filters, distributed by a local nonprofit, the nearby river — though polluted, prone to drought and usually unsafe for drinking — is becoming a cheaper and sometimes more reliable source of clean water. And while advocates say underlying issues like climate change-fueled drought and poor water management need to be urgently addressed, solutions like filters make a short-term difference because deliveries are often not enough for the neighborhoods’ needs. Nonprofit organization, Bucket Ministry, has been providing communities around Nairobi and other parts of Kenya with the easy-to-use water filters. It provided over 600 filters, made by water filtering company Sawyer, to households in four neighborhoods on Athi River since August and plans to up that number to 6,000. The devices are the size of a small water bottle and are fitted with a hose pipe onto a bucket. They can filter water from the river and nearby swamps into potable water that can be used by residents. “It has small holes, very, very tiny, micro holes that don't allow those particles that cause water-borne diseases to pass through the filter,” explains Derrick Mesulamu, country director for the group. Historically, Athi River is a water-scarce region, grasslands turned brown from the scorching sun and huge tracts of land were left untilled as residents couldn't farm the drylands. Consecutive seasons of failed rains and drought, driven by human-caused climate change and consecutive naturally occurring La Nina weather phenomena, have worsened shortages. Climate change has had devastating impacts on water resources in Kenya, especially the drylands, said Namenya Daniel Naburi, an environmentalist and climate change expert from the Africa Nazarene University. “We have seen that most of our water resources, especially surface water resources, have been declining due to the impacts of climate change.” Machakos' local government has been desilting and cleaning up the river, but most of the pollution, including plastic bags and bottles, happens upstream, where residents in poorer areas of Nairobi dump waste into the Nairobi River that then flows into the Athi River. Local authorities say they are cracking down on industries that have been disposing chemical waste and other pollutants into the Athi River. Jarim Omogi, head of the community health department at Amref International University, says water scarcity is an issue across Kenya. "44 out of 100 people (in Kenya) are unable to access clean and safe drinking water. That tells you the number of diseases that comes in the community and leave alone that, the amount of money the government has to use to take care of those that are sick because of what we could have avoided simply because of lack of water." Data from Machakos County health ministry, of which Athi River is a part, says 4 out of 10 cases at public health clinics in the area are related to water-borne disease. At least 10 people died following a cholera outbreak in Mavoko area in the region between October last year and March. Elizabeth Mwikali, another resident of Athi River basin, says the water filter has improved her family's health. "When we didn't have this (filtering) bucket, we were really suffering. We were always in and out of hospitals because the water we were using was dirty. Even after boiling it, not all germs are killed. My kids were complaining, my husband was complaining, they had diarrhoea, stomach aches and typhoid," she says. "But when we got this bucket, we have been filtering water now, and all our health issues are gone." Experts say that while water filters are worthwhile, for a project like this to work, it will need to be scaled up to reach millions of people in a similar situation to residents by the Athi River.