38.4 Million Kenyans Have Access To Safe, Clean Drinking Water- Govt

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 31 (KNA)- The government has increased the national water coverage from 53.3 percent in 2013 to 70 percent in 2022 which has enabled 34.8 million people to have access to safe and clean drinking water.

Water, Sanitation, and Irrigation Cabinet Secretary (CS) Sicily Kariuki said that additionally, the sewerage coverage has gone up from 22 percent in 2013 to presently 29 percent in urban areas.

Speaking at Maji House while giving a report on the status of the Rapid Response Initiative (RRI) of the projects across the country, Kariuki said that the Ministry is on course to ensure that the water coverage moves to 80 percent and sanitation of sewerage coverage to 40 percent by the end of 2022.

The CS also pointed out that there was an increase of areas under irrigation from 350,000 acres to presently 650,000 acres.

“To date we have a portfolio of 685 projects cutting across water, sanitation and irrigation that is being implemented at various stages of execution,” she said.

Furthermore, she cited that since the introduction of the RRI, several projects have been completed while those still pending have been put on fast track saying that some of the finished projects include the Naivasha Industrial Park, Mavoko water supply, Homa Bay cluster water project among others.

The CS revealed that the RRI which is a result-based process enabled fast-tracking of implementation of the Ministry’s priority programmes and also led to increased efficiency and faster project completion rate as well as realisation of the value for money of the current investment.

She highlighted that new project have been processed and will contribute to the progressive realisation of human rights to water and sanitation.

“Today I have launched the fifth wave of RRI project which aims to increase the area under irrigation by an additional 8,257 acres,” she said.

Moreover, the CS announced that 64 projects are ready for commissioning and will benefit about 2.7 million people who will have for the first-time access to safe clean drinking water.