Kenya launches new policy on environment, sanitation

Kenya on Wednesday launched an environmental, sanitation and hygiene policy that could help the East African nation save 270 million U.S. dollars annually due to poor sanitation.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health Cleopa Mailu said the government and development partners have begun to embrace a range of complementary strategies to ensure universal access to improved sanitation and a clean and healthy environment, dignity, social well-being and quality of life for all Kenyans.

"Apart from the burden of sickness and death, inadequate sanitation threatens to contaminate Kenya's water sources and undermine human dignity," Mailu said during the launch of the policy in Nairobi.

According to the health ministry, only 32 percent of the rural Kenyan population has access to improved sanitation and 14 percent or more than six million of Kenyans still defecate in the open.

In urban areas, a mere 27 percent of the population has access to private improved sanitation, most of which consist of simple pit latrines providing varied degrees of safety, hygiene and privacy.

"The 2015-2030 policy is a result of nationwide consultations and validation meetings and adopts a rights-based approach towards achieving Kenya Vision 2030 and the global Sustainable Development Goals," Mailu said.

He announced plans to end open defecation and ensure clean and healthy environment for all by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping, minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials and untreated waste water into the environment and by substantially increasing recycling.

The Manager of Water and Sanitation Program at the World Bank Glenn Pearce Oroz observed that the launch is an important milestone in the struggle to enable every Kenyan enjoy the full complement of their constitutional right to the highest attainable standards of health, sanitation, hygiene, clean and healthy environment.

"Kenya now needs sustained efforts to get rid of water borne diseases that has continued to kill people," Pearce Oroz said.

The new policy emphasizes on increasing public and private sector investment through public-private partnerships by mobilizing all available resources towards the national vision of transforming Kenya into a clean and secure environment.

The policy provides for the establishment of the National Environmental Sanitation Coordination and Regulatory Authority and the National Sanitation Fund.

The World Bank Group's Water and Sanitation Program Africa Region would provide the technical support to the Ministry of Health and the County Departments of Health in developing and publishing the Kenya Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Policy 2015-2030. Endit