Kenya

Kenya

Country statistics Population: 31.5 mio. People without access to safe drinking water: 14 mio. Child mortality: 12.1% Source: United Nations Statistics Division Project Project start 2004 Education by promoters 150’000 users

We have been working with the Kenyan non-government organisation KWAHO to educate inhabitants of the Kibera slum since 2004. Kibera is in the southwestern part of Nairobi. With about one million inhabitants, it is the largest slum in Africa. The township is illegal and therefore has hardly any infrastructure. Running water, refuse and waste water disposal, sanitation of any kind are largely non-existent. The inhabitants are forced to buy their water at "water kiosks" at enormously inflated prices. They often pay ten times as much for a litre of water as the people who live in the high-class parts of the city. Even the water they do get is usually of uncertain quality. Refuse and faeces lie in piles on the footpaths.

In workshops and home visits, we teach the slum dwellers about methods of hygiene and educate them in waste management and the use of the SODIS method. About 30% of the homes that receive the education continue to use the SODIS method to treat their drinking water and hygiene in these homes shows improvement. In 2006, a scientific project evaluation found that 16% of the infants in families that treat their water with the SODIS method suffered from diarrhoea, but in families that were not using the SODIS method almost 70% of infants had diarrhoea.

Last year, KWAHO expanded the SODIS promotion to include the Nyalenda slum in the town of Kisumu, in Northwestern Kenya. The rural communities in Wajir, in the North of the country, are being educated with help from Unicef.

Local partner organisation

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