CLEAN WATER ACCESS AT THE CENTRE OF LOVE KIBERA

We have had a cholera outbreak in the last three months in Kibera and several informal settlements in Nairobi. This has been due to thousands of people drinking unsafe and contaminated drinking and washing water. Contaminated water threatens the lives of millions of young children and their families.  Contaminated water is responsible for 90% of deaths among children under the age of 5, and also contributes to very serious health problems including diarrhoea, intestinal parasites, and miscarriage.

In the last three months, we have made progress, connecting an additional 10,000-litre capacity water tank. This gives us an extra 10,000 litres of water beside the two 10,000 and 1,000-litre reservoirs totalling 21,000 litres of water. In the same period, we upgrades the Ultrafiltration Water machine piping from PVC  pipes to the recommended UPVC pipes. We are still running tests to ensure that everything is well-fitted and to the required standard before further steps. There are still more requirements to be met before we get approval for our water filtration income-generating activity. These include among other others; the taking of water samples for laboratory tests and facility visits by public health officers.

We have had challenges ranging from theft of water pipes and general vandalism. Water is a resource and costly in Kibera, competing for scarce commodities comes with enough challenges. Valuable time is spent in monitoring, and mending broken, disrupted pipes and sometimes correcting diverted water. These challenges are perpetrated by competing water vendors and the readily available scrap plastic market.

We have put in place measures such as uniquely painting our pipes with permanent black paint to protect them from theft and easily identifiable. A permanent lasting solution would be burying and cementing our pipes with concrete and this will be done when we have funds for the same.

We are providing routine community sensitisation on the significance of using safe clean drinking water. Our focus now is providing community training, targeting families and specifically women and youths.  

In the last quarter, the centre of love has experienced water challenges due to pipe cuts and water rationing. Water in Kibera is a resource in high demand, which attracts completion and at times malicious interests from individuals. With the above in mind, the Centre of Love necessitated several interventions not only to rally the community on the importance of cohesion but more so on the significance of water in the community. The Centre of Love is focused on building a cohesive community therefore, through Water Sanitation and Hygiene partners are encouraged to talk on different topics that enhance peace, respect and security within the community and among individuals. Respect for one another goes beyond including the properties within the community. The Centre of Love will continue to focus on training and community conversation as a remedy to reduce the destruction of water pipes by people with different interests.

As we planned to secure our pipes and continuous water access by the community; significant community conversation intensified to bring the community to consciousness on water issues. Our water champions were initially trained and are up to the task and will participate in the WASH training (TOT) that will be offered by The Kenya Water Institute (KEWI). This will provide them with skills to support the community will basic water information.

Still grateful to our benefactors, the Centre of Love is upgrading the water system to fit into government water standards by replacing PVC with UPVC pipes in the next quarter. We need your support to make this possible and enable the community to enjoy clean safe drinking water. The water kiosk will be partitioned into water filtration and refilling, water packaging, bottle washing and rinsing sections.