Statement from Executive Director
Mrs. Catherine Mwango

Kenya Water for Health Organisation (KWAHO) founded 30 years ago has lived up to its original aims and objectives of providing water and sanitation facilities to the disadvantaged groups at affordable prices. Over that period KWAHO with the support of various funding partners has reached over 2 million people in Kenya, facilitating many communities to have access to water and sanitation facilities.

KWAHO’s niche over the years has been in empowering communities to manage their own projects in a sustainable manner. The target groups who are mainly women have been empowered economically and socially. Women can now make their own decisions affecting their own lives. In some communities where women were not allowed to speak in front of men, are now able to stand up and speak. This is because through KWAHO, the projects have ensured that women occupy key positions on the committees managing water and sanitation facilities.

Coverage: While KWAHO has a national scope of programme coverage, currently KWAHO is operating in the following geographical areas:

• Lower Tana area in the Coast province
• Maseno division in Kisumu district, Nyanza province
• Butere-Mumias district in Western province
• Kibera informal settlement in Nairobi area

These programmes do not exhaust the capacity that KWAHO has in terms of her ability to implement projects and therefore there is still room for up-scaling our programmes.

The gap that has to be filled is still wide as many communities in Kenya do not have access to safe drinking water (Kenya is ranked as a Water Scarce country in global ranking and assessment) and basic sanitation.

Other interventions
Income Generating Activities
Apart from the physical implementation of water and sanitation projects, KWAHO economically empower the target groups through income generating activities that are promoted within the context of gender development. The projects’ support consist of promoting what women groups traditionally do in their areas and in imparting to them skills required for their activities to develop in the most sustainable manner.

Project Implementation Strategy and Sustainability factors
Sustainability of KWAHO projects has been due to the strategies that KWAHO has employed which include

• Effective mobilization of communities through sensitization and training to achieve ownership.
• Collaboration with various stakeholders (the government, local leaders, politicians and the target communities) in the project sites that ensures actual implementation of projects and continuity of those projects when KWAHO pulls out of the area.
• Application of appropriate technologies.
• Gender considerations that empower women to handle community projects.
• Environmental impact considerations into a project.
• Sensitivity to socio-cultural factors in the communities.
• Capacity building for communities.
• Effective monitoring and evaluation.

The success of KWAHO is dependent on several factors which include the good will of our funding partners namely; the Austrian government through the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), UNICEF, WaterCan EAVEU Canada, SOLOQUAY Foundation through SANDEC in Switzerland

Other factors include effective networking with all stakeholders i.e the donors the relevant Kenya Government departments nationally and in the project areas, other NGOs, CBOs etc.

Lastly KWAHO human resource strength is an important component of the Programme of work. The range of skills of the staff are mainly in, general management, water technology, public health, community development, etc.

Impact of KWAHO programmes
The most important impact of KWAHO Projects is the created and enhanced awareness of the necessity of safe and clean drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene practices in the areas where KWAHO works. The users are able to define and express their needs and demands and are more able to manage and sustain the facilities. Operationally, the projects have achieved the maximum involvement of women at various levels (leadership, decision making, operation, management etc).

As we continue giving this service to the needy people, we are indeed contributing towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goals to which our country Kenya is committed to. However cannot continue with her noble work without the support of partners and staff as important resources cited above.

Mrs Catherine Mwango
Executive Director