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P&G Tuesday announced partnership with World Vision to provide clean drinking-water to twelve (12) counties across the country.
The consumer product company will invest a staggering Sh50 million with World Vision acting as the implementation partner.
The move is part of P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) program that has been running in Kenya for over a decade.
The CSDW program utilizes P&G Purifier of Water sachets which is a low-cost powdered technology in a packet, designed to purify even heavily contaminated drinking-water so that it meets WHO standards for safe drinking water.
The P&G Purifier of Water was invented by P&G scientists in collaboration with the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention with each 4-gram packet of P&G Purifier of Water turning 10 liters of dirty, potentially deadly water into clean and drinkable water in minutes.
“According to UN Habitat/UNEP, 50 per cent of hospital beds are filled with people suffering from water related diseases. If everyone everywhere had clean water, number of diarrheal deaths would be cut by 34 per cent.
This shows that there is great need for interventions that will make clean water available to people and this partnership aims to do just that” says Vivek Sunder, Managing Director, P&G Kenya.
This partnership is geared towards reducing sickness and death in children which results from drinking contaminated water.
Counties that will benefit from the program are Makueni, Machakos, Kitui, Kajiado, Taita Taveta, Narok, Kisumu, Isiolo, Marsabit, Elgeyo Marakwet, Baringo and Homa Bay. The program will give close to 75,000 people training on water treatment and storage to improve sanitation and hygiene awareness.
“Access to clean drinking water is essential to health and is a basic human right. Investments in water supply and sanitation can yield a net economic benefit, as we will see a reduction in the funds directed towards health care interventions.
The Government through my Ministry is committed to investing in water supply treatment and infrastructure across the country. I commend P&G and World Vision for partnering with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation to provide solutions for clean drinking water for Kenyans,” said Cabinet Secretary for Water and Irrigation, Eugene Wamalwa
The initiative will work with about 120 community health workers who will train beneficiaries on water treatment using P&G Purifier of Water sachets as well as hygiene practices.
Country Director for World Vision Kenya, Mr. Dickens Thunde said that World Vision’s Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) strategy in Kenya emphasizes the need to increase access to safe drinking water for the rural community as well as the importance of combating WASH-related diseases through capacity building and community behavior change.
“World Vision Kenya’s WASH program aims at improving the inclusive household access to sustainable drinking water for targeted areas by 30% by 2020 and improving inclusive household access to sanitation facilities and hygienic practices by 25 per cent by 2020,” said Dickens.
Since 2005, P&G through the Children’s Safe Drinking Water initiative has provided close to a billion liters of clean water to Kenyans.