A day on water and sanitation

Just a brief note to let you all know that I have survive another information-loaded day in East Africa. Today's activities revolved around the themes of water coverage, waste management and sanitation in the city of Nairobi. This meant visits to the Univeristy of Nairobi to hear from an organisation called Majina Ufanisi. This group is all about water and developement, especially in the poor communities of rural and urban areas of Nairobi. Their approach to solving these issues are very interesting and involve placing the communities in a position of partners, as opposing to simply receivers, and transferring responsibility for the building and maintenance of facilities such as latrines and santiation points within their community. Within the training of the people that this involves lies an opportunity for gender equity and empowerment, meaning that women who are trained in the same skills as men receive the same pay as these men, something that is not traditional nor common in these cultures and communities.
We were also entertained by the CEO of Athi Water Services Board- the company that provides water coverage and waste management services for the Nairobi city region. He presented us with many maps of treatment plant locations and pipelines that transport water 40 to 60km from its source to Nairobi. The gist of his story is that Nairobi, and Kenya as a whole, is 10 years behind in terms of water coverage. With an economic growth rate of around 4.6%, but a population growth rate closer to 10%, Nairobi's water coverage is a mere 40%, excluding the slums areas. To this company, it is not even practical to install a water system to slum areas due to so called historical reasons. Out of the 40% of water that goes unaccounted for, 10% is stolen and 30% is lost through leakages. It speaks that the company was much more interested in gaining the income from this 10% stolen water (which is being taken from illegal taps in the slum areas) as opposed to the other 30% which is lost due to poor maintenance of pipelines in the city.
Our day wrapped up with a talk with the Nairobi city council... an interesting insight into the actions of the council and how they make important decisions. The most pressing project currently under way is a river clean up as well as the developement of a recycling station to reduce the amount of waste in the landfills. 2,400 tonnes of waste are generated by the city per day, and of that, 53% is organic waste, 17% paper and 12% plastic. Currently, "scavengers" live in the dump sites, collecting and sorting the garbage and selling what they find to companies that recycle the materials. A composting program is being developed, and a recycling centre is being built. I asked what would happen to the scavengers who depend on the unsorted garbage for income and the city implied that there would be employment options for these people at the recycling location... would be interesting to see how that turns out

Anyways, my friends, it is late here and its finally friday night, with a prospect of a much needed sleep in tomorrow so I'll turn in now
Hope all is smooth sailing at home
lots of love
Marion