Residents take to UV rays for protection

• Illegal connections, which are srampant in the slum areas, often use plastic pipes, which easily crack and expose water to contamination.
• Sodis method of purifying water was introduced four years ago by Kenya Water for Health Organisation (Kwaho).
• The water purification method has reduced incidents of diarrhoea by 42 per cent where it has been used.

You see it when you get there — women and children queuing at various watering points to fill their jerry cans.

The energy that residents of Kibera have to expend to get water from tanks and taps operated by vendors stationed in murky surroundings is not admirable, and when contrasted with the many bars in the area, it turns out that it may be easier to get a bottle of beer than a glass of clean water in Kibera.

Ask Joyce Kanyiki, a resident who knows too well that even after buying that tap water from the vendors, there is no guarantee that it is clean.

It is still risky to drink it raw and many people have had to boil their water. But that’s where the problem is. It is not always possible to afford enough kerosene to heat up drinking water with. In fact, many people don’t.

Illegal connections, which are suspected to be many here, often use plastic pipes, which easily crack and expose water to contamination.

But thanks to a simple method of purifying water that is gaining acceptance in this area, Ms Kanyiki, 30, can afford a deserved break from frequent visits to hospitals she previously suffered with her children.

“Since I started using this method towards the end of last year, my children have been free from disease. They used to get diarrhoea so often before then,” she says.

The mother of two is talking about Sodis, which stands for solar water disinfection. It is a process of purifying water using sun rays and nothing else. It is as simple as that.

Introduced in the area some four years ago by Kenya Water for Health Organisation (Kwaho), an NGO that seeks to promote access to clean water to disadvantaged groups, the Sodis method of purifying water involves filling plastic bottles of not more than two litres to the brim with tap water suspected to be contaminated, and exposing them to sunshine for not less than six hours on a sunny day.

During cold seasons, this exposure should be extended to two or more days, according to Joshua Otieno, a project officer with Kwaho.

The bottles are filled to the brim to avoid air space, which would ordinarily be conducive for micro-organisms to breed.

Mr Otieno further explains why the plastic bottle must not be larger that two-litre capacity: “If the bottle exceeds two litres, its width would most likely be over 10 centimetres and the Ultra-Violet (UV) rays will not penetrate its girth fully. Thus the water will not be 100 per cent disinfected.”

It is the UV rays that destroy the disease-causing micro-organisms in the water. That this method is gaining acceptance in Kibera is manifest in the bottles that line rooftops in the area.

Indeed, inside Kwaho offices is a store in which hundreds of used water bottles are kept.

Families in the neighbourhood collect them for re-use, and the demand has been high, according to Mr Otieno, who says: “We have come to the realisation that if we do not provide the local community with bottles, then secondary contamination is likely to take place as they will store the disinfected water in unclean containers. The residents have easily taken up the cheap technology.”

A mission to get testimonies from more residents takes us to the narrow murky corridors that define the dense occupation of this area.

The sight of open drainages conveying water carrying along all sorts of refuse brings about unpleasant imaginations about what would happen where the black slimy froth met cracks and gaps in the water pipes running through the area.

We eventually reach Khadija Mohammed’s residence. The divorced mother of five tells us how she would drink raw tap water until recently when she was introduced to Sodis.

“I would go down with typhoid every now and then, but for the last few months, I have been well,” she asserts.

The 40-year-old woman places her water-filled bottles on the roof, everyday before she leaves to attend to her business. She explains that she has managed to save on fuel and time.

“I am not unwell now, I am more productive,” she says. “Besides, we can now afford a better diet and a few items that we could not have a few months back.” That’s because by not having to buy extra kerosene for boiling water, Khadija is able to divert the expense to a better diet.

Such is the appreciation of the simple way of purifying water that even schools are adopting it. Makina self-help primary school is one such institution.

The principal, Ms Leah Mutuse explains that she has noted a decline in the number of children falling ill since she adopted the UV treatment of drinking water.

“The children were getting sick too often as they drank raw water from the taps, and there was a lot of absenteeism. This led to poor performance. But now things have changed.

"Our performance has greatly improved and absenteeism cases due to ill-health are so rare, may be one or two in a week,” she says happily, though her worry is whether all the pupils use the similarly treated water back at home.

According to Catherine Mwango, the executive director of Kwaho, this method of purifying water has reduced incidents of diarrhoea by 42 per cent where it has been used, such as in Maseno in western Kenya, and now Kibera.

“We have on several occasions put water in two bottles — one with Sodis water and the other one with untreated water from the taps — and taken them to the Government Chemist for testing.

"The water that has been disinfected with Sodis comes out as 100 per cent clean, whereas, raw water from the taps show e-coli bacteria,” she explains.