The fact that Water, sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) is the subject of dedicated targets within the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 6) is a testament to its fundamental role in public health and therefore in the future of sustainable development. Access to safe water, adequate sanitation, and proper hygiene education can reduce illness and death from disease, leading to improved health, poverty reduction, and socio-economic development.

Why Water

In Kenya, 1 in 9 people still have no access to clean water. But in the communities we serve, it’s 9 out of 9 . Water is a daily and clipping challenge whereby without water you can not grow food, you can not grow healthy, you can not stay in school and you can not keep working.

Today, hope is on hold in over half of the developing Kenya’s communities without access to clean water and sanitation.

Water Filtration System Upgrade

NGAO Foundation Water Filtration System Upgrade

One of the four big programs at the center of the NGAO Foundation’s efforts is water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).

Our goal of the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene program: To ensure people in the communities in Kenya get access to clean and safe drinking water, therefore improving positive health and economic outcomes.

For millions of people across the world, access to clean water — one of the fundamental human needs — is a struggle. The danger of unclean water goes further than dehydration caused by a lack of water. Polluted water isn’t just dirty — for some, it’s deadly. Millions of people, particularly children, are seriously sickened by a host of water-related ailments each year, many of which are easily preventable. In the informal settlements, slums, and rural villages of Kenya, poor sanitation and hygiene as well as unequal access to safe drinking water make children extremely sick and force families to spend what little money they do have on hospital visits.

In Kangemi (the community where the NGAO Foundation is based), water runs into the taps only three days a week, though there are frequent shortages. Households store water in plastic containers, provided to them by the NGAO Foundation. During water shortages, women go out looking for water, in desperate times not caring about the quality or source of the water.

At NGAO Foundation, we’re trying to change that for the members of our community.

The NGAO Foundation has installed three large water storage tanks, plus a water filtration system, to continuously provide safe, clean water to the community. While it has made a great, positive impact in the community, it hasn’t been enough. To date, 13,456 households have benefitted from the NGAO Foundation’s clean drinking water, but the need continues to grow.

Our next phase based on this growth is to standardize our water pipes, in compliance with government certification, and increase the water storage capacity to better meet the community demand. In order to fulfill government inspection, we need to re-install the entire piping system, replace the green PVC and black pipes and install new white ones, per the public health department’s recommendations.

The great news is that by fulfilling the government certification recommendations, we will be able to double the amount of water we’re able to filter per day — from about 1,000 liters to 2,000 liters — and therefore provide double the amount of necessary clean water to the community.

We were able to raise $2,700 USD to fully fund this project and will soon be able to grow our WASH operations!