• The border point processes approximately 14,000 travelers, workers and traders and 7,000 trucks weekly.
• To help prevent the spread of Covid-19 and other diseases from spreading between countries, WaterAid has been setting up sanitation blocks with partners at borders
Image: HANDOUT
Thousands of travellers, workers and traders will benefit from a cross-border water, sanitation and hygiene project at the Busia border.
WaterAid and the Kenya Water and Sanitation Civil Society Network will on Tuesday hand over the completed Busia cross-border water, sanitation and hygiene project to Kenyan authorities.
The border point processes approximately 14,000 travellers, workers and traders and 7,000 trucks weekly.
The WASH project is part of WaterAid’s efforts to build back better towards a post-Covid-19 world through strategic partnerships with EAC and Civil Society Networks across East African partner states.
It is also working towards achieving SDG 6, which commits to providing access to clean water and sanitation for all by 2030.
To help prevent the spread of Covid-19 and other diseases between countries, WaterAid has been setting up sanitation blocks with partners at busy border crossings in East Africa.
“The projects will help protect landlocked countries which rely on these crossings for free movement of people and goods,” WaterAid said in a statement on Monday.
“At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when cross-border infections were a much bigger threat and a contributor to the spread of the virus, WaterAid and KEWASNET responded by providing permanent handwashing facilities.
“Now, in recognition of the long-term benefits of containing Covid-19 and many other infectious diseases, the sanitation block has been equipped with toilets, showers, a changing space for caregivers to babies and a storage room to store cleaning equipment and WASH supplies,” the statement added.
Speaking ahead of the launch, Olutayo Bankole-Bolawole, WaterAid East Africa's regional director said effective WASH in emergencies needs a holistic approach because pandemics will stay with us and it is how people manage them that matters.
“Whereas phase one focused on the construction of permanent handwashing facilities at Busia border, during the second phase, we expanded the project to include gender-inclusive and disability-friendly sanitation blocks with eight bathrooms, 16 toilets and a changing space for caregivers to babies,” Bankole-Bolawole said.
Vincent Ouma, the head of programmes at KEWASNET, said trading will be better if people are healthy.
“Ideally at KEWASNET, we hope that this intervention will be sustained beyond the Covid-19 pandemic to tackle other sanitation and hygiene related illnesses and improve the health and economic outcomes of Busia border. Our region’s borders are critical to the economy and so is the health of the business community,” Ouma said.
Truck driver at Busia border Omar Mubarak said with the handwashing facility, they can wash their hands there without having to buy sanitisers.
Research by Vivid Economics and WaterAid showed that by simply ensuring everyone has somewhere to wash their hands with soap and clean water, productivity increases and billions of dollars in economic returns can be unlocked.
“Each dollar invested in water, sanitation and hygiene could generate up to a $21 return,” WaterAid said.
According to the report, the global economy could generate up to $45 billion per year and reduce the spread of infections in a Covid-19-like epidemic by up to 20 per cent.
WaterAid opened sanitation points on the Horohoro border (Tanzania/Kenya), and Holili and Lungalunga borders (Kenya/Tanzania) in April this year.
Phase two of the Malaba border (Kenya/Uganda for the provision of water and sanitation services and the Rusizi (Rwanda/DRC) one will be launched in June 2022.
Another sanitation point off the Nemba border (Rwanda/Burundi) was launched in 2021. It reaches returning refugees and expands WaterAid’s footprint through communities living around the border in Burundi.
Edited by A.N