George Kebaso @Morarak
Only three counties—Kitui, Siaya and Busia—are open defecation free, meaning people from the 44 other counties have no adequate toilets, Water Minister Simon Chelugui has said.
Similarly, out of 50 million Kenyans, a paltry 25 per cent has access to proper sewerage coverage.
Highlighting an analysis done in early 2017, Chelugui (pictured) said only 20 per cent of Kenyans were using safely managed sanitation with just five per cent with basic sanitation.
“This means that over 70 per cent of Kenyans are exposed to contaminated water,” said the CS in Nairobi while launching Kenya Sanitation Conference 2019.
He said, in this regard, the government has lined up several projects aimed at increasing sanitation coverage in the country through various programmes, one of them being the Kenya Towns Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Programme.
“This programme is set to be completed in June 2021 at a cost of Sh38 billion with financing by the African Development Bank (AfDB),” said Chelugui.
The Conference aims at providing a forum for safe, practical and innovative solutions towards containment, collection, transport, disposal, resource recovery and reuse of waste water and sludge in both rural and urban settings, and in both domestic and industrial wastewater contexts.
