Lakeside towns in east Africa to benefit from UN scheme on water, sanitation

The United Nations agency tasked with promoting socially and environmentally sustainable housing has launched a joint project with Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to improve the water and sanitation facilities of six towns around Lake Victoria.

The UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) project, which is being funded by the Netherlands, is designed to help achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) that calls for a halving by 2015 of the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Work on the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative has already begun in four of the towns and construction contracts have been signed for the remaining two.

The work will include building public water kiosks and establishing sanitation facilities for local schools. Existing infrastructure, especially pumps, pipes, water storage tanks and treatment works, will be repaired or rehabilitated. Training and capacity-building will be the focus of the project’s second phase.

The six towns involved are Homa Bay and Kisii in Kenya, Muleba and Bukoba in Tanzania, and Masaka and Kyotera in Uganda.