WATER, SANITATION AND HEALTH
WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AND SANITATION
The last mile communities with which Pragya works are commonly subject to desperate water shortages, and approximately half of Kenya’s rural population lacks access to adequate and safe water for their needs. In the ASAL counties of Turkana, Samburu and Laikipia, climate change coupled with population growth, expanding commercial agriculture and the failure of the state to adequately serve the last mile results in severe water scarcity and hardship for the pastoralist inhabitants of these regions. Water sources that are available are often contaminated and overexploited, contributing to the spread of disease and driving intercommunity conflict. Water-borne diseases account for over 60% of premature deaths among mobile pastoralists in the ASALs, with high rates of infant and child mortality and incidence of diarrhoea. Women and children in these ASALs can spend up to a third of their day collecting water from distant sources, placing them at risk of attack from warring communities and wildlife. In the absence of toilets, open defecation is often practised with implications on environmental hygiene, pollution of water sources, and dignity and safety, particularly for women and children.
WATER, SANITATION AND HEALTH
WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AND SANITATION
Pragya adopts several approaches to supply remote and marginalised populations in the ASALs of central and northern Kenya with adequate and safe water.
Pragya’s research on the hydrology and water stress in these arid lands helped build an understanding of the water related issues in the area and the potential of various measures and technologies to ameliorate them. Local water seminars identified community-led innovations that blend traditional water management methods with appropriate technical inputs.
Our water projects are anchored around the establishment of Water and Sanitation Committees in target locations supported to identify the local hydrological challenges, what the most appropriate solutions might be, and to manage any new solutions and approaches in the long term.
We work with communities for the revitalisation of depleted water sources in conjunction with water purification measures, and run training sessions on rainwater harvesting in natural rock depressions as well as household water harvesting techniques. We have conserved and revitalised selected water sources used by the pastoral communities to demonstrate the methods and techniques for sustainable management of water resources, and these have included for instance, desilting of water sources and revitalisation of natural springs through afforestation in infiltration zones. We install pipelines and water tanks with filtration systems for direct water relief where appropriate, and construct special platforms for community drinking points to protect against contamination. Nomadic groups are also provided with sterile, portable water tanks to help combat the prevalence of water-borne diseases.
We train local masons in eco-sanitation techniques, with a focus on toilets, for the construction of sanitation facilities for community use, as well as in schools, encouraging in particular girls’ participation in education. Ec-san toilets are constructed in selected schools to ensure sanitation facilities for the children. We also run interactive family hygiene awareness sessions, covering basics such as handwashing, waste disposal, helping prevent the spread of water-borne diseases to which remote communities are especially susceptible. Knowledge of basic family hygiene may be taken for granted in more urban settings, but in Kenya’s marginalised last-mile and nomadic populations, understanding of disease transmission can be very limited, and a little education goes a long way.
WATER, SANITATION AND HEALTH
WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AND SANITATION
GEOGRAPHY / LOCATION
Our Programme on Safe Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene is being/ has been implemented in Kenyan ASALs, in the counties of Laikipia, Samburu and Turkana.
