The World water day celebrations March 19th -22nd 2011

The centre in partnership with other organizations on 19^th- 22^nd march 2011 joined the reset of the world in celebrating world water day. The event which is celebrated globally from 19-22 March annually grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on environment and development in Rio de Janeiro.
The spirit behind this effort is to:
Raise awareness of the world’s current water and sanitation crisis and critically demand strong government to stop the needless deaths of 5,000 children every day:
To create awareness on the importance of household water treatment and safe storage at point of use:
To enhance awareness  on the importance of hand washing with soap at critical moments.

The celebration was marked with a 2km walk along Juja road.The youths participated fully  towards the objectives of the day.

Women and children walk on average 6km to often unprotected water sources, such as rivers or muddy dugouts. In urban areas people have no choice but collect water from polluted waterways or pay high prices to buy it from vendors who obtain it from unknown sources. The average weight of water carried is 20kgs, carrying the heavy water container s back home is an exhausting task, taking up valuable time and energy. The lack of access to safe drinking water impacts severely upon health, education and income at household level. In Kenya for instance half in the bed are filled with people suffering from preventable diarrhea related diseases, women spend less time for productive activities because of time spend colleting water or caring for the sick family members. Illness and lack of sanitation facilities in the schools mean children are unable to go to school and missing out of school leading to low academic performance. Inadequate access to sanitation and water, keep people living in poverty, low economic development: an estimate of 5% of developing countries GDP is lost to illness .Despite of numerous commitments, politicians are still ignoring this crisis. Water and sanitation are essential for improving health education, gender equality and economic growth.  

The event was marked with 2 kilometers walk along Juja road followed by speeches from invited guest from WASH United, water organization, Maji na ufanisi, German embassy, Kwetu home of peace, Christ  the king Kibera ,Netwas, GIZ at PCEA Eastleigh Community Centre Assembly Hall. The speeches were then followed by a series of entertainments from invited youth groups and primary school children of school going age. The items of entertainment entailed, narratives, poems, skits, traditional creative dances, modern dances, miming, choral verses among others. All these items were bearing messages on the importance of water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH).the event was finally crowned by awards of Maji Afya (silver treated ceramic water purifiers) to 350 women come from low income households within the project area.

This years celebrations attracted several partners, these included in the namely WASH United, water organization, Maji na ufanisi, German embassy, GIZ   among others. Other actors involved included 7 Patricia from K24, and partners from maji na ufanisi, water organization, Kwetu home of peace, Christ  the king Kibera ,Netwas and WASH United enjoying the entertainment from pupils from St. James feeding program while Mr.Nyaga reading the speech of Roland from GIZ (German embassy)

Outcome of the event:

1.     Enhanced advocacy to the government to provide clean and safe drinking water to its citizen.

2.     Increased awareness and adoption of appropriate technology in household water treatment and safe storage.

3.     Enhanced community participation in water, hygiene and sanitation promotion initiatives.

4.     Enhanced cultivation of children/youth creativity and mastery.

5.     Enhanced networking and collaboration among actors.

6.     Enhanced media publicity and coverage water crisis within the project area.

 Conclusion:

The centre would like to thank CORDAID for their continuous support to community health and environment management programme, Wash united, water organization, German embassy ,Maji na Ufanisi ,primary schools, women self help groups and youth groups  for making this event a successes. It is important to note that in order for us to significantly reduce the alarming statistics of waterborne and sanitation related diseases among children under five : and to attaining millennium development goal number 7 target 10 that call for reduction by half the number of vulnerable households without access to basic sanitation and safe water a collaborative effort is required ,as this duty should not only be  left to the UN and the government but a collaborative effort among actors such as development partners and civil society organizations is required and need to be enhanced.