By Faith Anene, Kakamega
Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa has officially inaugurated a new water project at Juakali area in Shieywe ward aimed at enhancing non-revenue water in the region.
Governor Barasa said that the initiative is a collaboration between the Kakamega County Water and Sanitation Company (Kacwasco), The Water Project and USAID Kenya.
“This is an initiative that we are trying to use to address maternal health care. This being a malaria prone area, USAID has come in handy to partner with Kakamega in preventing malaria infection in this region,” Barasa said.
He added that Kakamega has signed a partnership with USAID for 5 years at a cost of Sh11million for the project which is set to benefit around 5,291 residents by providing access to sustainable and safe drinking water, significantly improving the living conditions in Kakamega municipality.
David Gosney, the USAID Mission Director to Kenya and East Africa, highlighted the project’s role in strengthening governance through partnerships with county governments and various stakeholders in the water sector.
“We have been here for 60 years and one of the most important thing of these partnerships has been in health and in water,” Gosney said.
“I was informed and this was backed up by statistics that if you are in Kakamega they have cut malaria prevalence by half from 30 percent and down to almost 15 percent. Before, there was 750,000 people in Kakamega alone was subjected to malaria, now that means 350,000 citizens don’t have to go through that,” he added.
Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa (left) flanked by David Gosney (right), the USAID Mission Director to Kenya and East Africa during the function – Photo/GPU
On a national scale, this initiative contributes to a broader objective of delivering basic drinking water services to over 500,000 Kenyans, enhancing service quality for more than 350,000 people, and improving water resource management for approximately 300,000 individuals.
This project represents a crucial step towards ensuring that more communities in Kenya have reliable access to clean water, addressing urgent public health and environmental needs.
