The Government has started an ambitious project to ensure all schools in the country are connected with safe water supplies. Only 9,000 out of more than 22,000 schools in the country have water supplies. The project comes hot on the heels of the Nationals Schools Electrification Project, which has now achieved its target, to connect all schools with electricity. The pilot of the ambitious project has already been launched in the three North Eastern counties where 50 schools are targeted. The Government has set aside Sh1 billion to kick start the project, which is estimated to cost Sh50 billion nationwide.The first school to be covered in North Eastern was Wajir Girls Secondary School where the project was commissioned by President Uhuru Kenyatta in May when he visited Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties. Water Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa revealed the details of the ambitious project when he spoke at the State House Agriculture Summit Monday. The CS said the Government’s policy is to increase the number of Kenyans with access to clean water supplies by 10 million within the next three years.
“The first place to start from is water for schools. The President issued a directive in January and the project is underway,” said the CS.
He said many development partners are ready to partner with the country to improve water, sanitation and hygiene in schools. Wamalwa said the Saudi Development Fund donated Sh500 million and that amount has already been committed to connect the schools in North Eastern with safe water supplies. He said the connection of power makes provision of water supplies easier. The CS said safe drinking water supplies to schools will increase the overall access to water since neighbouring homes will also be connected.
“The water supply in Wajir Girls serves 600 students, the teachers and the neighbours which adds up to almost 1000 people,” said the CS.
Wamalwa spoke at the summit where he joined Agriculture CS Willy Bett and other senior government officials who discussed the Government’s efforts to transform the agricultural sector.
Lets begin with communities then schools. Allowing neighbours to draw waters from schools, and girl schools for that matter, is a big big problem. We will see the rate of girls dropout rising.
Do you even need to think or ask for people opinions if they need piped water while they struggle to get any water in the first place. In rural areas people still depend on streams, rivers and borehole and with this project it will save them time, money and most importantly give them clean water. The biggest beneficiary for the 99% complete schools electrification projects were the communities along the schools route. Basically power line just passed there fence and they just paid 15,000 to get power. Same will apply here, the communities will now have the opportunity to get piped water into there homes.
Ethiopia doesn’t even considers the people when they have to uproot them for projects let alone seek any of their opinion. Its a strictly controlled state where everything is decided at the top and effected immediately. That is how there projects get done quickly, they simply bulldoze and build. All the construction companies and businesses are owned by the ruling elite tribe that represent 6% of the country population.