The government should establish policies that will encourage water recycling in the Kenya, an industry expert has said.
This is to ensure the sustainability of the country’s scarce water resources.
“Kenya is one of the world’s water stressed countries but the UN believes there could be enough water to meet the world's growing needs, if only we could find a better way to make the most of every drop,” Davis & Shirtliff Technical Director, Philip Holi said.
“We should look at water recycling on a large scale as a viable option to tackle the water problem in the country,” Holi added.
Holi explained that the government can consider policies that create irrigated agriculture zones next to centralized sewage treatment works that would use recycled water and be run under strict guidelines.
This call by the water firm rides on the back of data from the World Water Development Report 2019 that says agriculture-including irrigation, livestock and aquaculture-is by far the largest water consumer, accounting for 69 percent of annual water withdrawals globally.
Putting in place policies and regulations should go hand in hand with investing in the right infrastructure to make the realization of water recycling in the country a reality, Holi said.
Kenya can borrow notes on water recycling from Israel which recycles approximately 90 percent of all its wastewater.
Israel has been able to, not only survive drought and periods of water scarcity but it has also been able to thrive and use reclaimed water as a fulcrum for creating new businesses and economic opportunities like exporting surplus water to neighboring countries.
