MYWO, Equity Bank to support women's water project
What you need to know:
- Maendeleo ya Wanawake and Equity Bank have signed an MoU to make the National Harvesting Water Project a success.
- Once fully implemented, the project will ensure households at the grassroots receive 10,000-litre tanks to harvest is safe and clean rain water for domestic use.
Maendeleo ya Wanawake (MYWO) and Equity Bank have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to make the National Harvesting Water Project, launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta in December last year, a success.
Once fully implemented, the project will ensure households at the grassroots receive 10,000-litre tanks to harvest is safe and clean rain water for domestic use.
The project will also see women groups across the country benefit from access to affordable credit to obtain tanks, and training on financial literacy, entrepreneurship and digital literacy.
MYWO national chairperson Ms Rahab Muiu, Equity Group Executive Director Mary Wamae and Group Commercial Officer Polycarp Igathe in February signed an MOU in Nairobi to formalise the partnership between the two organisations.
Already, some women groups across the country have started to receive their water tanks, with Maendeleo women groups in Mbita Homa Bay County being among the first recipients.
Research by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Undesa) shows women and girls in low-income countries spend 40 billion hours annually collecting water.
Women’s workloads
Improving access to clean water not only helps reduce illness rates and gives girls more opportunity to attend school, it also dramatically reduces women’s workloads giving them more time for “productive endeavours” such as earning a decent income.
As the managers of households, women bear the primary responsibility for providing water and ensuring its quality in much of the world today.
In 2010, the United Nations adopted resolution 64/292, recognized the right to safe and clean drinking water as a human right.
However, more than 750 million people still depend on unimproved sources of drinking water with increased risk to diarrheal diseases; half of these are in sub-Saharan Africa.
