Innovative for Water Sanitation and Hygiene practitioners have been challenged to come together to provide solutions to the climate change effects on the World.
The practitioners who were meeting during the I4Wash forum which brought together Water Supply practitioners from East Africa nations together with technology experts from around the world said the conference was key in discussion the key issues going on of drought.
During the conference technology experts came up with ways of using tech to combat the climate change while other experts came shared ideas on what can be done to save more water and reduce pollution in catchment areas.
William Ojwang the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Fresh Water Thematic lead in Kenya said the forum is coming at an opportune time because of what is going on currently in the country where there is drought impacting people’s livelihood, and nature as people are dying and losing livestock.
Currently he said Kenya is staring at food insecurity in the and is characterized as a water-scarce country adding that there is need to manage its water resources taking a very important approach to it.
“So we are looking at the catchment, securing the catchments and enhancing water production, and downstream ensuring that we reduce water pollution, we will reduce loss of water particularly non-revenue water,” he said.
He said by Peopleo particularly wash practitioners should join hands and come up with solutions to make sure the little water that is available is made accessible to Kenyans.
Ojwang also reminded supply practitioners to pay attention to the catchments where the water comes from.
“Supply yes but are we really paying attention to where the water is coming from and taking an integrated approach to water resources management,” he said.
The WWF official said there is need to empower communities with resources to implement Catchment managing plans and secure the key water resources.
He said so far Kenya Depends on free water flow and requires innovative measures to prevent pollution
Marlies Batterinc from Acqua For All organization based in Netherlands said they have been in Kenya for the last 20 years working on SDG six Water Sanitation and Hyegiene
She said they have been supporting Wash initiatives for the last five years and financing such initiatives adding that the financing for water and Sanitation gap for 2030 is huge.
To her Innovate For Wash Forum in Malindi was aimed at showcasing a few of their programs together which they have with Kenyan partners in mobilising finance for wash.
In the Meeting she said they wanted to clarify the barriers to unlock commercial finance for water and Sanitation .
The Conference brought together 120 participants from different areas including technology, suppliers, financiers ,tech organisations, .
She said they need everybody to come together to have fruitful conversation to unlock finance for water for Wash..
“Major barriers to unlocking commercial finance for water is that finance sector do not really understand the challenges in Water and Sanitation entrepreneurship and the opportunities as it is different from financing Agriculture, and energy,” she said.
Mariam Njoroge the Managing Director of Quercus Group Limited a consultancy firm that deals with entreprise development within water sanitation and waste management said Innovative for Waster and Sanitation forum brought together people from the East African countries.
She said they did that for market places which brought development and oppportunities for finance, technology all geared at providing solutions for the Water Sanitation and Hygiene.
In the next years or so she said the forum will be improved more for it to have a holistic perspective to anchor it along the energy food and water because they cannot isolate water in what they do.
She said the country is faced with drought and cholera all which are caused by lack of access to unsafe , clean and safe water.
Zdislaw Iwanejko the Founder and CEO of Wash Innovation Company which design and produce portable hand washing station for emergency situation said
the machine is portable and easy to set up .
Further he said one is able to wash hands without touching the tap which is very important in preventing diseases such as cholera or Ebola.
The tap he said allso allows to save water as it allows one to wash hands with only 200 mm which is five times less than normally
