Murang'a women to get clean water in drive to end sexual assault
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef say two billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water at home and 3.6 billion to sanitation.
What you need to know:
- Managing Director Mary Nyaga on Tuesday said the commitment is part of Muswasco's New Year resolution after it was found last year that women face too many risks in search of clean water.
- She said some women face sexual assault as they scramble for clean water, adding that "safe water being a necessity makes them face humiliation".
Murang'a South Water and Sanitation Company (Muswasco) will ensure women residing in major towns of Kandara, Maragua and Kigumo have access to safe drinking by the end of this year.
Managing Director Mary Nyaga on Tuesday said the commitment is part of Muswasco's New Year resolution after it was found last year that women face too many risks in search of clean water.
She said some women face sexual assault as they scramble for clean water, adding that "safe water being a necessity makes them face humiliation".
Ms Nyaga said women in towns rely on dirty water, which, besides posing health risks, is bad for laundry. "We have noted complaints from our women out of scarred hands owing to use of dirty water in laundry chores. Water vendors are even using sewage water and women being the major users, fall to the trick."
She said she is happy that Water and Sanitation Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome is from Murang'a County "and we will support her to deliver on her mandate, both here in the county and nationally".
Free water points
The MD said they will soon "set up free water points in markets where traders can access drinking and cooking water".
She added that women, especially those with babies, will access controlled volumes of free water "to ensure hygienic levels remain up for both mothers and babies".
The safe water piping programme also targets many homesteads. They will pay revised charges.
"We are committed to ensuring waterborne disease burden, especially cholera, typhoid and bilharzia, is battled using access to clean water. It is our promise for 2023. We will also revise our bottlenecks to ensure water vending groups are licensed to guarantee safety and low cost."
Also read: Confronting the ghost of sexual assault
She urged residents to remain alert and guard water installations from vandals. "We thank the Murang'a County Security Committee, led by County Commissioner Karuku Ngumo, for its commitment to providing security in all our projects. We appreciate that vandalism has remained very low."
Ms Nyaga said the police have been cooperative in the journey so far. "Even when it appears stylish to castigate and scandalise security organs in this county, we at Muswasco cannot belittle your critical role in ensuring social engineering. As a service provider that interacts deeply at the grassroots, we are ready to bear testimony that we are fairly better in security."
Goodwill
Sh said the national and county governments have expressed political goodwill in sorting out water issues. "We are happy for our President William Ruto and his Deputy Rigathi Gachagua for visiting us several times and making public statements that sound sincere regarding our water problems. The two have promised us dams and sewer plants," she said.
"We are now engaging researchers to explore avenues for embracing technologies to commercialise our sewerage disposal plants...to generate Liquified Petroleum Gases, biofuels as well as electricity."
Ms Nyaga said they have been "sensitised by the President that we can use our local resources to grow employment and economy and that is the transformative leadership that is ideal in the current economic crunch".
She urged water users to pay their bills promptly, those with arrears to engage the company for better settlement models and those without connectivity to apply for negotiated connection fees.
