We owe it to Kenyan Women and Children to Provide Access to Safe Drinking Water

Water is life. This is probably one of the most common sayings and with good reason. Water is vital to the sustenance of life. A human being can go 3 weeks without food but only 3 to 7 days without water. Our bodies are 40% water and with this need for water to stay alive, access to especially clean drinking water is a must for all human beings.

UNICEF estimates that 663 million people around the world do not have access to improved drinking water; of these, 319 million – nearly half – are in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, 37% of people do not have access to safe drinking water. At least 1.8 billion people globally use a source of drinking water that is fecally contaminated and nearly 1,000 children die every day due to preventable water and sanitation-related  diarrhoeal diseases. The statistics are not encouraging.

Lack of access to safe drinking water is especially difficult for women and children. Women, because they are usually the ones that must walk long distances to fetch water for daily household use. Unfortunately, even with this ability to fetch water, it doesn’t guarantee that the waterr is safe for drinking.

Drinking clean water does not only quench thirst, but means that people are more productive and live a higher quality of life as they are less likely to contract waterborne diseases like typhoid and cholera. The World Health Organization has estimated that every 100 shillings invested in clean water, sanitation and hygiene generates 400 shillings in increased productivity, which enables sustainable and equitable economic growth.

Goal 6 in the Sustainable Development Goals is: Clean Water and Sanitation. Ensuring universal access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030 requires goodwill from all of us but especially from parties that have the infrastructure to make a huge difference.

Proctor&Gamble (P&G) has committed to making a difference.  P&G scientists used cleaning technology research to invent P&G Purifier of Water packets in partnership with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The product is pretty innovative as it basically packs the power of a water treatment plant into a small 4 gram sachet. It’s also easy to use as one needs only a bucket, a spoon, a cloth and a small P&G packet. People can purify 10 liters of dirty, potentially deadly water in only 30 minutes providing enough drinking water for a family of five for one day.

P&G has pledged to deliver 15 billion litres of clean water globally by 2020 through the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program to help play their part in the global efforts to achieve goal 6 of the United Nation’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in Kenya and the rest of the world.

We as citizens can also do our part by making sure that we seek out information on climate change, water purification and best practices as far as safe drinking water is concerned and spreading this knowledge to our friends and family in vulnerable areas as well as avoiding anything that could make it harder for the vulnerable to access clean water. I for one, have pledged to spread the word on the safe use and affordability of the P&G water purifier sachet. Going for only Ksh 10, it’ll go a long way in making life easier and safer for vulnerable Kenyans.