SWIFT has installed the biggest solar-pumping system in northern Kenya
at Nabulon in Turkana
English
A latrine built through the modified Community-Led Total Sanitation approach implemented by Oxfam in Turkana
Tearfund engineer Deo works on the rehabilitation of the giant water system at Kasongo, watched by a local technician being trained to take over maintenance of the system
The SWIFT Consortium has met 100% of its targets for the first phase of its programme, reaching almost 850,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya with safe water or sanitation, and hygiene promotion activities – in some cases all three.
This impressive achievement has taken less than two years, despite challenges such as insecurity, population movements and a cholera outbreak. And the number of people reached on the ground is actually higher than suggested by the figures, which record only those people the consortium has invoiced for through its ‘Payment by Results’ contract.
Twenty percent of that contract – which is worth nearly £20m in total – is linked to demonstrating sustainable outcomes in 2017 and 2018. Over the next two years, SWIFT will continue to work with communities, local authorities, health bodies, utilities and radio stations to build capacity and ensure the changes it has brought about will endure well into the future.
Providing much-needed access to water
In Kenya, SWIFT’s work to bring clean, reliable water to people who desperately need it includes installing the biggest solar pumping system in northern Kenya in Nabulon, Turkana; laying 23.5km of new pipe network in an informal settlement of Nairobi; and installing ‘water ATMs’ at kiosks in Wajir, to improve the reliability and financial transparency of the system. In total, it has reached 201,300 people in Kenya with clean, safe water.
In DRC, SWIFT’s determination to provide people with safe water has seen it overcome a range of logistical challenges to reach even the most remote communities. It recently completed a huge gravity-fed water system in Kasongo, digging 10km of trenches and transporting vast quantities of construction materials over inadequate roads, while moving the materials needed to construct five wells in Pangi required three bridges to be rebuilt. Despite the challenges, SWIFT has now reached 647,066 people in DRC with clean, reliable water.
Improved sanitation and hygiene behaviour
In addition to its work on water, the SWIFT programme has now reached a total of 428,914 people in DRC and 30,900 in Kenya with improved sanitation – mostly household latrines – and 697,257 people in DRC and 330,000 in Kenya with hygiene promotion activities.
SWIFT’s work on sanitation includes modifying the Community-Led Total Sanitation approach in Turkana, Kenya, to overcome past challenges such as poor soil formation, flooding and termite infestations.
SWIFT’s Oxfam team piloted a modified version of the approach under which communities are trained to produce dome-shaped slabs which are permanent, inexpensive, easy to replicate and much stronger than the timber alternatives. The County Government agreed to the pilot, and has since thrown its full weight behind the modified approach, actively supporting the roll-out.
SWIFT’s work to promote improved hygiene behaviour includes a Tearfund pilot of the Community Health Club approach in semi-rural areas of South Kivu in DRC. Membership of the clubs, which provide practical guidance on how to improve home hygiene and prevent common diseases, is voluntary, free and open to all. Members take part in weekly discussions on topics such as the safe storage of drinking water or making soap, and each week are given practical assignments.
An early study suggests villages in which the clubs have been established have already witnessed a fall in the incidence of hygiene-related diseases.
