Residents of Port Victoria in Bunyala West will receive funding totalling Sh17 million from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through Water Sector Trust Fund (WSTF).
The cash is for the Upscaling Basic Sanitation for the Urban Poor project. Cheques to the tune of Sh1.85 million were issued to the first group of recipients by the department of Water Irrigation, Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change, and Busia Water and Sewerage Services Company (Buwassco). The drive was led by county executive Isaac Alukwe.
Of the funding, Sh10 million has been allocated for a decentralised treatment facility (DTF), which is under construction at Mulukoba; Sh4 million for safisan toilets; and Sh3 million for administrative costs and contingencies.
Of the targeted 200 toilets, 139 are complete and the rest are to be completed in the next three months.
At the DTF, waste water-treated effluent will be released to the lake, while the sludge will further be anaerobically treated, with the resulting biosolids dried and converted into manure through a value addition process. The manure and the treated effluent will only be released into the environment after meeting the National Environment Management Authority standards.
Addressing participants at Port Victoria Social Hall, Dr Alukwe urged them to sign up for the programme funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the WSTF, stating that it will help put money in peoples' pockets via packaging the value-added biosolids that will be sold as organic manure, thus increased income while reducing waterborne diseases.
Alukwe encouraged women and the youth to seize the opportunity and get empowered by the project since the DTF will be managed by the local community.
"The groups in charge of waste management will sell the fertiliser and benefit from the money made," he said, citing the role of the programme as part of the Climate change Action Strategy.
Buwassco MD Erick Ojiambo said the toilets will be emptied by their exhausters at a subsidised fee and taken to the DTF for processing and treatment.
