By M, KNA
Migori County, in partnership with Virridy and Lifestraw, has distributed water purifiers to various Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) centers.
Speaking during the flagging off of the consignment to all 12 sub-counties, Migori governor Dr Ochilo Ayacko said the initiative was a vital step in ensuring school-going children have access to clean and safe drinking water.
Virridy is a global organisation that focuses on improving water security in Africa through innovative climate finance and technology.
The initiative aims to reach up to 4,500 schools and more than two million students over the next two decades in Kenya with consistent access to microbiologically safe drinking water.
Ochilo noted that the provision of clean and safe water in primary schools was a crucial element in protecting and safeguarding the health of the young ones, promoting their well-being, to promote academic success.
“We want to cultivate the culture of preventive mechanisms rather than curative to have a healthier future society,” said Ochilo.
Each school will receive a LifeStraw Community Filter, a gravity-fed purifier designed for institutional settings paired with hygiene education, staff training, and safe storage to ensure clean water every day.
The initiative replaces the traditional model of boiling water with firewood or charcoal, an initiative that will also help reduce deforestation, indoor air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions in the country.
Naomi Aluoch, a Public Health Officer in Migori, says that the distribution of the LifeStraw Community Filter will significantly lead to the reduction of diarrheal diseases, promote a healthier population and save the county on crucial finances that can be used to do other developmental programmes.
Aluoch however urged the schools that benefited from the programme to take care of the LifeStraw Community Filters for the continuity of safe production of clean water to eliminate the diarrheal diseases.
She also said that there was a need for scale-up of the programme to all the schools in Migori to promote good hygiene and provide a conducive environment for learners to excel.
Other interventions done by the county to promote good hygiene and provide safe water for schools include providing water purifiers, drilling of boreholes and providing water tanks to harvest rain water to public schools.
