What is MWP-K?
The Millennium Water Program—Kenya (MWP-K) is a USAID-funded initiative to provide safe water, improved sanitation, and hygiene education (WASH) to areas of rural Kenya impacted by drought and climate change. With the objectives of reducing water-borne illness, promoting integrated water resource management to improve livelihoods, and developing partnerships with beneficiary communities for improved sustainability, MWP-K is part of the Millennium Water Alliance (MWA), a global coalition of leading WASH-focused relief and development organizations..
What does the MWP-K Do?
In collaboration with communities, schools, and health clinics MWP-K:
- Improves the health and economic wellbeing of households and communities in drought prone lands by improving access to clean water and hygienic facilities through community training, school engagement and infrastructure development.
- Provides community-level water management strategy and training to reduce vulnerability to drought and climate change Works with teachers and students to form school hygiene clubs focused on behavior change. Students perform plays, recite poems, and make artwork to spread the word about the importance of safe water, sanitation and hygiene.
- MWP-K moves beyond direct provision of community infrastructure with the aim of supporting deeper, systemic changes in WASH service delivery. By creating a different demand landscape paired with community-based strategies to effect and sustain change, beneficiaries are engaged at each step in the process and are readily able to see impacts.
- A service delivery approach (rather than a “handout” approach) which treats WASH as a basic, necessary service rather than an externally conceptualized project is expected to lead to greater sustainability and to support improvements in small-scale agricultural productivity, nutrition, and health, especially for women and young children.
Where does the MWP-K Work?
MWP-K implementing partners work in the most water stressed areas of Kenya. Currently, the program is focused in:
- Moyale, Laisamis, North Horr, and Saku constituencies Marsabit County Eastern Province
- Nzambani, Mangelete; Kibwezi Constituency, Makueni County Eastern Province
- Bura Constituency, Tana River County, Coast Province
- Khwisero consituency Butere District Kakamega County Western Province
- Kisumu constituency, Kisumu County, Nyanza Province
- Garissa, Mbalambala districts, Garissa County North Eastern Province
Read more:
MWA’s Success in Kenya: Waye Godha Primary School
MWA’s Success in Kenya: Balich Village
How is MWP-K Making a Difference?
Since 2005, MWP-K has reached almost 200,000 rural Kenyans through the following activities:
Many community members who have benefitted from the program report that their families are healthier with fewer stomach problems because they now drink clean, safe water. Children are more likely to attend school. Mothers and fathers have more time to spend caring for their families and earning money because they have more ready access to water. The positive change is overwhelming:
“Fetching water is the work of the girls. In this school, girls would be dropping out for several days. The gap in school attendance has changed very much. Health has radically improved. Children no longer carry water from home. We use water to plant seedlings in the schoolyard.” — Gideon Makula, Headmaster, Roland Primary School, Mtito Andei, Eastern Province
“There has been an absolute change in the area. Water is abundant; people can now wash their hands. It is really a tangible impact we feel.” – Mohamed Hirmoge – a local community leader, Balich Community, Garissa, North Eastern
