Every drops count

The world is already confronting significant challenges including overpopulation, climate change, and the emergence of new diseases. These issues are having especially devastating effects in fragile and economically disadvantaged regions, such as many sub-Saharan African countries. 

Kenya, in particular, is grappling with the severe repercussions of climate change, widespread poverty, and inadequate water infrastructure.

In Kilifi County, located in the coastal area of Kenya, diseases like diarrhea and respiratory infections are prevalent due to the scarcity of clean water sources and proper sanitation. 

Hygiene in schools, health facilities, and households is heavily influenced by the availability of water.  The average walking distance to the nearest water point is 3.5 km, which means hours of walking for women and children responsible for collecting water for their families. 

A daily routine that combined with overcrowded classrooms, lack of sanitary facilities, and insufficient teachers increase the risk of dropping out of school (in the county only 65% can read and write).

Without clean water and basic sanitation, ensuring health and development is impossible.

Since 1998, Amref has been working in Kilifi County through an innovative model known as WHEEL – Water and sanitation, Hygiene, Empowerment, Environmental conservation, and Life skills development. 

The WHEEL project is a multi-year program aiming to ensure access to clean water sources, improve community health, and increase resilience to climate change. This program consists of annual action plans centered around the theme of water.  

The specific outcomes to achieve include:

• Increasing access to safe water for 400 targeted households (2,400 beneficiaries) and 16,000 school children aged 6 to 13.
• Counteracting the effects of climate change by developing knowledge and awareness through the One Health approach for 360 pupils across 6 target project schools, establishing 6 School Environmental Clubs, and training 300 community members to serve as Water Management Committees (WMCs).

We will map the communities’ water needs with their full involvement to identify wells that need rehabilitation and protection. Water troughs for animals will be built next to the wells to prevent water contamination. The rehabilitation of these wells is expected to bring clean water to over 400 families, benefiting 2,400 individuals.

To ensure sustainability, we will establish 20 Water Management Committees (WMCs) and train them on sustainable water management, leadership, hygiene, climate change resilience, animal health, social and gender inclusion, and children's rights. We will also provide training on the maintenance and operation of installed hand pumps.

We will involve communities, school boards (BoM), and local education and public health officials to map the water needs of schools. In identified schools, we will install 20 rainwater harvesting systems with cisterns to ensure a supply of clean water for drinking and personal hygiene. The cisterns will be connected to gutter and drainage systems that collect and store rainwater, which will be purified using chlorine tablets and made available to all children and school staff.

Together with the Kenya Forestry and Research Institute (KEFRI), we will create an understanding and operational plan to raise awareness about the effects of climate change among school children. We aim to develop teaching units on the One Health approach to be used in school club activities in six schools.

By enhancing their role as agents of change, we will guide children on protecting biodiversity as a tool to combat climate change. Each club will be tasked with creating a small nursery and planting trees that the children will care for with their teachers, making a tangible commitment to environmental conservation.