Western Kenya Sanitation project through USAID funding has embarked on a five-year programme to provide transformative approach in sorting out sanitation and menstrual hygiene problems in Western region.
Speaking during the Kakamega county inception meeting of the project dubbed, USAID/Western Sanitation project, the Chief of party for USAID Western Kenya Dr Paul Orengo said $24 million (Sh2.8 billion) has been set aside to provide interventions to both sanitation and menstrual challenges in eight counties in the region.
“Our mandate is to introduce transformative approaches innovations that will help build a sanitation market place in a sustainable manner where the sellers, the buyers and the designers of sanitation products and services are able to interact in a productive and meaningful way,” Orengo said.
The eight counties to benefit include Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia, Kisumu, Siaya, Migori, Homa Bay and Kisii.
Orengo said the project targets to reach out to at least 500,000 households with interventions related to either safely managed sanitation or basic access to sanitation.
“Our project targets rural areas, peri-urban areas as well as urban areas, as you know the sanitation and hygiene needs of these three populations can be totally different.”
He however decried the little allocation of funds by most of the county governments towards sanitation saying this has in turn heavily cost them in terms of their people visiting doctors, paying for medication either for Typhoid, diarrhoea or other public health related diseases.
Kakamega county director for public health William Olaka appealed for social behaviour change among the population in the region saying it’s the only way the region can achieve the required levels of sanitation.
He added that the government of Kenya has set frameworks for county governments to legislate and invest in sanitation and menstrual hygiene management, including through market-based solutions.
“The GOK has also initiated an open defecation free rural Kenya campaign, adopting community-led total sanitation as its core strategy to advance improved sanitation service delivery,” he said.
Western Kenya access to basic sanitation remains low, at less than 30 per cent in urban areas and 50 per cent in rural communities.
Reports indicate counties where at least 10 per cent of sanitation facilities are improved have correspondingly low open defecation rates, while those with few improved facilities have among the highest open defecation rates.
