MYWO drive: One million women to get water tanks by 2024
Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation (MYWO) national chairperson Rahab Muiu (third left) and Treasurer Susan Owino (centre) join members on a jig on arrival at the MYWO and Equity Bank sensitisation meeting at Aga Khan Hall in Kisumu on March 10, 2021. Christened the National water Harvesting project, the programme takes women through financial literacy training towards acquisition of affordable credit for water tanks.
What you need to know:
- Through its national water harvesting project started in 2019, MYWO envisions to have not less than 25 per cent of its members with a 10,000-litre tank.
- They have partnered with Equity Bank to provide women with the credit to buy the tanks.
Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation (MYWO) seeks to have one million women acquire water tanks by 2024.
Through its national water harvesting project started in 2019, the organisation, which celebrated its 70th anniversary this year, envisions to have not less than 25 per cent of its four million members with at least a 10,000-litre tank.
“We have partnered with Equity Bank to provide women with the credit to buy the tanks,” chairperson Rahab Muiu said during a media breakfast meeting at a Nairobi hotel on Friday.
Training
The bank also trains the beneficiaries in financial literacy, entrepreneurship, digital literacy, and business development, she said, adding women in 22 counties have bought 10,000 tanks.
The tanks enable them to store huge volumes of water during the rainy season, eliminating the burden of searching for water for hours from distant areas.
“We have seen the lives of women in Kajiado improve,” she said.
“The economic status of the women has improved. They now have time to engage in economic activities.”
Resilience
Water harvesting is a strategy that has also worked in India, enhancing women's resilience to the impacts of climate change.
Bhungroo, for instance, is an innovation that has been adopted by women in Gujarat.
It is a rainwater harvesting technique that stores excess rainfall underground, making it more accessible for farming, and pumps it out for use during dry spells, explains Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) in its 2020 case study report on the initiative.
It indicates that the massive underground reservoir can hold as much as 40 million litres of rainwater, harvested for about 10 days in a year. And it can supply water for about seven months.
Technology
Naireeta Services, an India-based social enterprise, introduced the innovation to the women.
“Giving women ownership rights over technology and building their technical skills to instal, manage and monitor the Bhungroo system eventually helped them to gain rights over land,” states CDKN.
According to Water.org ,15 per cent of the estimated 53 million Kenyans rely on unimproved water sources such as ponds, shallow wells, and rivers. And 41 per cent of Kenyans lack access to basic sanitation solutions.
