Last month, AiRD’s CEO Fredrick Kasina and Enterprise Development Coordinator Kelvin Maina visited Makueni County to sensitize the community on how to purify water for drinking. This is done as part of AiRD’s Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) program in partnership with Procter and Gamble through their Children Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) program using the P&G Purifier of Water packets.  Areas visited were Nunguni, Kaiti and Kaumoni which are all new areas of sensitization.

During this visit, AiRD conducted demonstration of water purification process to pupils and  teachers using the P&G Purifier of Water packets and distributed enough of the product to ensure clean safe drinking water in the 15 schools visited. The AiRD team did make a courtesy call to the Director of Education for Makueni County, Mr. Kipsang who appreciated the effort of the program and spoke highly of the impact the project will have on the beneficiaries. He lauded such partnership as the way to go in community development

Apart from conducting the demonstration, AiRD also conducted health talks with the pupils on the importance of safe and clean drinking water.  Most of the population in Makueni County do not have access to clean safe water as they get water from open surface sources like wells and dams and hence the need for change of habits and embrace the habit of purifying their waters before consumption. Immediate community members who live nearby the schools were also part of the information sharing session and water purifying demonstration.

Teachers from the schools were very happy because they didn’t know how to purify water at first. Thanks to AiRD’s intervention, they are now able to purify water using P&G water purifier packets. Sylvester Mutisya, a teacher from Kyakituku Primary School was very pleased by AiRD’s intervention and identification of schools in the area.

The pupils were equally excited by the demonstration. They were simply amazed by the change of water from brown color to pure and clear after using the water purifier packets.  Intensive campaigning on the importance of safe and clean water for drinking should still be carried out because many locals in Makueni County area are still unaware on the process of water purification and the dangers associated with drinking untreated or contaminated water. AiRD aims at sensitizing other communities and to continuously campaign on the importance of clean drinking water.