NA Market Kenya
The “largest water purification project in the world without government or private sector funding” has been launched in the Western Province of Kenya to provide safe water at no cost for the next 10 years for 4 million people, reports Wanjohi Kabukuru.
Kenya ‘Blue miracle worker’ to the rescue
I
T IS A FAIRLY SIMPLE BUT REVOLU- tionary gadget – the LifeStraw Water Filter, also called the “blue miracle worker”. The trouble-free device con- sists of a jerry can connected by a pipe
to a filter which has a red tap. Using suc- tion, the widget filters out all impurities in the water in the can, making it much purer than bottled water. Tis device is set to transform four mil-
lion lives in Kenya’s Western Province by providing them with clean and safe water at no cost for the next 10 years. Small wonder that the LifeStraw water
filter has been voted as one of the best “in- ventions” and “innovations” by Time and Esquire magazines respectively. Affection- ately called the “blue miracle worker”, it has also won the Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas. “Hii ni maendeleo sasa [this is develop-
76 | June 2011 New African
ment now],” said Peter Alubale, a motor- cyclist in Kakamega, commenting on the LifeStraw water filter, which was launched in Kakamega, the provincial capital of Western Kenya in late April. Targeting some 900,000 households, the
project (dubbed “Carbon for Water”) aims at providing access to clean and safe water to rural inhabitants, in the process fighting against diarrhoea and other water-borne dis- eases. Te project also hopes to mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing two million tons of carbon emissions annually. LifeStraw has been under intense re-
search for the past two years in Lurambi, western Kenya, where, like in most rural areas across Africa, many households lack clean piped water. Te fact that LifeStraw is being distributed free of charge to 900,000 households is what makes this campaign distinctive. Te Swiss national, Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, is the brainchild of the project, through his company, Vester- gaard Frandsen, which was founded in 1957 in Switzerland as a family business concen- trating on disease management. In 1997, Mikkel became the majority shareholder and through his stewardship the company has today become a global brand with a presence in 10 countries across the world. During the launch, Mikkel, whose
work experience saw him invest in Africa in his teenage years, running businesses in Nigeria and Kenya, waxed lyrical: “Tis is my proudest day – being in my home in Kakamega and seeing positive change coming. Tis is one of the largest water treatment projects ever done without gov- ernment or public sector funding. It will also be one of the first that directly links low carbon development with access to safe drinking water and impacting health outcomes,” the Swiss man said. To fully grasp the intensity of Vester-
gaard Frandsen’s impact, one only has to turn to the chilling statistics of the WHO. “Diarrhoea is the second leading killer of children under the age of five, accounting for approximately 15% of under-five child deaths worldwide or almost two million deaths annually,” says the WHO. Tis water problem indeed makes a
strong case for any venture that promotes access to clean drinking water. Over 60% of the 1.2 billion people in the world who lack clean drinking water are found in Africa and Asia. It is this intervention, coupled
Right: Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen (centre of photo) and one of his employees explain the workings of the LifeStraw filter to new recipients. Below: A grateful family shows their appreciation for the “blue miracle worker”
with forest conservation and restoration, that gives LifeStraw an edge in its direct impact on people’s lives. “The scale is massive and unique,”
Mikkel said. “We are linking safe drink- ing water, behavioural transformation and climate change in our campaign. What this means is that the 900,000 households tar- geted will no longer need to use wood fuel to boil their drinking water. Te long and short-term effects of this, is that LifeStraw will reduce diarrhoeal cases and save our forests. Tat is how the Carbon for Water Campaign comes in.” Vestergaard Frandsen (the company) is
investing some $25m in the project, which it hopes to recoup through carbon credits, to be earned by the reduction of carbon emis- sions. According to Mikkel, the revenue the company will earn will be reinvested into the project to sustain it for the next 10 years. To this end, an accredited independent
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