KENYA: Project in west of country helps residents access clean and safe drinking water without having to burn wood

Record ID: 361786

  • Title: KENYA: Project in west of country helps residents access clean and safe drinking water without having to burn wood
  • Date: 29th June 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Swahili) VIVIAN MAZIZA, KAKAMEGA RESIDENT, SAYING: ''Sometimes it looks clean but like now when it has rained it has a lot of silt, and the water colour has changed."
  • Embargoed: 14th July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya, Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Environment,Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA6P3WY0404UNCL0Y0O3MANRJ7R
  • Story Text: A project in western Kenya is helping residents access clean and safe drinking water without having to burn wood.
    The Carbon for Water initiative, run by Vestergaard Frandsen, a Danish company which deals in disease control products, is targeting some 4.5 million people in rural Kenya where most homes boil water for hours to make it safe for drinking.
    Using a door to door campaign to educate residents, local health workers contracted by Vestergaard Frandsen distributing 900,000 'LifeStraw' water filters to homes across the region.
    Dorcas Mangerere, a Health Worker with Vestergaard Frandsen went to Chetuta Cheti's homestead to install the LifeStraw, a mechanism that passes water through a series of purification filters.
    "We have shown her how to treat the water so she will be using the filter to prevent diseases like cholera, dysentery and typhoid. For that she will save her money, going to the hospital and also saving life," said Mangerere.
    Many in the region like Cheti do not have access to municipal treated water.
    "We have never had clean water here and often get sick with vomiting and diarrhoea because of dirty water from the stream. So the water here is not good for our health," said Cheti.
    Residents in the Kakamega area rely on spring, river or well water which is easily contaminated by dirty runoff water.
    ''Sometimes it looks clean but like now when it has rained it has a lot of silt, and the water colour has changed," said Vivian Maziza, of Kakamega.
    The buying up of land by foreign companies, illegal logging and cutting trees for firewood all pose a major threat to Kenya's forests.
    The nearby tropical Kakamega rainforest is a water tower for the western Kenyan region.
    The forest covers more than 334 square kilometres and is also home to a variety of African hardwood and softwood trees. But the forest has been shrinking, partly due to illegal logging.
    The Vestergaard Frandsen program will provide filter systems for at least ten years at no cost to residents and it's hoped the product will reduce dependence on firewood and in turn reduce carbon emission by about two million tons annually.
    The filters have a lifespan of three years after which they need to be replaced.
    Vestergaard Frandsen says the cost of the filters will be paid back to the company through carbon financing, a model which gives companies in developed countries potential revenue, in the form of carbon credits, when they sponsor initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries.
    "What we hope to achieve is that by getting everybody to filter water less water will be boiled, by boiling less water less firewood will be burnt and less trees will be chopped. We expect actually by having a standing crop of 900,000 life straws in 900,000 homes benefiting 4.5 million people that we are able to reduce the emission of C02 by between 2 and 2.5 million tons per year. When we are audited and an independent third party comes in and verifies our data, then we get an audited report issued and that is when we can start selling those 2 to 2.5 million tons of emission reduction as carbon credit," said Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, Chief Executive Officer for Vestergaard Frandsen.
    About 4,000 health workers have been taken on to distribute the filters in western Kenya over a five week period. A repair centre will be set up in every village to replace and repair faulty filters.
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