Nelly Bassily | September 30, 2013
This week’s story from Kenya talks about rainwater harvesting. Water, they say, is life.
Effective sanitary practices are also essential for a healthy life. Sanitation, as defined in our script of the week, is “the means of preventing human contact with the hazard of human waste in order to promote health.” Clean water helps create good sanitation and better hygiene. This in turn leads to good health.
Poor sanitation, water and hygiene have many serious repercussions. Children – and particularly girls – may be denied their right to education because their schools lack private and clean sanitation facilities. Women are forced to spend large parts of their day fetching water. Poor farmers and wage earners are less productive due to water-related illnesses, health systems are overwhelmed, and national economies suffer. Without safe water, good sanitation and hygiene, sustainable development is impossible.
In this script, a village is plagued by a serious water-related disease. Local people resolve the problem, in collaboration with the local authority.