According to the World Health Organization, over one billion people in developing countries do not have access to a safe water supply. Safe water means water which it is safe to drink and which is available in the home or within 15 minutes' walking distance. Almost without exception, women and girls are the water carriers in any given community. One Kenyan study found that women and girls carry from 20 - 25 litres over distances of 3.5 kilometres, for one or two hours daily and as school-age children are often used for this task, class attendance is reduced.
The village of Kobong in the Siaya district in northern Kenya has a population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants. The area is dry and poor: rainfall is unpredictable. Although considered a " lake shore community ", technical problems in bringing the water to the village, and groundwater salinity left householders dependant on four impoundments or pans. A number of these did not contain water for several seasons because they silted up and were abandoned.
Under the auspices of the UNESCO project, the Kenyan government and the village women joined forces to fund the cleaning of the existing pans and the building of a new, larger water impoundment with a capacity of 57,000 cubic metres The whole operation cost an estimated Ksh640,000 ($US67,000), of which Ksh300,000 was raised by the Kobong women's Group in Nairobi. Poor rainfall in 1997 meant that the Kobong community had to wait to see the fruit of its efforts. The rainy season in November 1998 was more promising, but it is still too early to tell to what extent the new dam and clean pans will be able to serve the village.
There are other immediate benefits; the availibility of heavy machinery in the district encouraged a Danish donor organization to fund the cleaning of two other water pans near Kobong. More important, however, the endeavour showed how community members can move montains to improve their quality of life.
Monica Ayieko in Nairobi, with Nadia Khouri-Dagher
(SOURCES, January 1999) (www.unesco.org)
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