• Only 29 per cent have access to sanitation, while 40 per cent of Kenya’s population lacks access to safe drinking water
•The World Health Organization says 57 per cent of the global population (4.6 billion people) used a safely managed sanitation service in 2022.
Image: GILBERT KOECH
The United Nations has launched a strategy to scale up accessibility of clean water and sanitation globally.
One of the global goals is to ensure there is safe and affordable water for all by 2030.
According to the UN, the venture requires huge investment for infrastructure, sanitation facilities and hygiene.
Water and Sanitation PS Julius Korir said Kenya needs at least Sh1 trillion to supply every home with water.
“Water is a right and it is enshrined in our constitution. All citizens have a right to clean water and dignified sanitation,” he said on June 21.
Only 29 per cent of Kenya's population has access to sanitation, while 40 per cent lack access to safe drinking water, the PS said.
Provision of clean drinking water and sanitation will help curb water-borne diseases, Korir said.
The PS said they plan to harvest water by putting up dams.
“We have mapped the country to harvest. We have about 63 dams that have been identified in the water and sanitation investment plan. The cost of this water and sanitation investment plan is Sh1 trillion,” Korir said.
He said a lot of resources are needed and the ministry is coming up with new modalities of how to raise the funds to lessen the burden on the government and citizens.
The ministry is also developing and fundraising for climate adaptation plans to build more dams.
Korir said there is an upcoming project funded by the Africa Development Bank to provide water and sanitation to small emerging urban centres.
The first phase of the project, which will start at the end of the year, will cost Sh22 billion, while the second phase will cost Sh43 billion.
Last year, the PS indicated his ministry had prepared an investment plan to enable the country to have 100 per cent coverage of water and sanitation by 2030.
The World Health Organization says 57 per cent of the global population (4.6 billion people) used a safely managed sanitation service in 2022.
It says more than 1.5 billion people still do not have basic sanitation services, such as private toilets or latrines.
“Of these, 419 million still defaecate in the open, for example in street gutters, behind bushes or into open bodies of water. In 2020, 44 per cent of the household wastewater generated globally was discharged without safe treatment,” WHO says.
It says at least 10 per cent of the world’s population is thought to consume food irrigated by wastewater.
“Poor sanitation reduces human well-being and social and economic development due to impacts such as anxiety, risk of sexual assault and lost opportunities for education and work," WHO says.
"Poor sanitation is linked to transmission of diarrhoea diseases such as cholera and dysentery, as well as typhoid, intestinal worm infections and polio. It exacerbates stunting and contributes to the spread of antimicrobial resistance.”
The UN’s System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation will provide a platform for UN entities to work collaboratively on water and sanitation, not as a sector in a ‘silo’ to address the inter-related cross-sectoral aspects of water and sanitation.
It aims to fully operationalise inter-agency coordination, capitalise on reforms of the United Nations development system and leverage scale-up water and sanitation action of UN entities.