SWIFT Story of Sustainable Change: Working with a local utility to get much-needed water to residents of Lodwar, Turkana
Overview
The town of Lodwar is the driest spot in the arid county of Turkana in northwest Kenya. Getting water to the town’s residents is the responsibility of a private utility, the Lodwar Water and Sanitation Company (LOWASCO), and has long been a problem.
Under the SWIFT programme, Oxfam has been working with LOWASCO to overcome the challenges it faces: mapping the water supply to facilitate funding proposals, installing solar-powered pumping systems to avoid high running costs, and building management capacity.
More than 30,000 residents now receive clean, safe water directly to their homes. Regina Aemun describes the difference it has made to her family, and how they now enjoy better health, better food – and being able to bathe whenever they want.
Keywords
- Capacity building
- Community building
- Corporate responsibility
- Development methods
- Health promotion
- Humanitarian practice
- Livelihoods
- Local Government
- Maternal and child health
- MDGs
- Millenium Development Goals
- Natural resources
- Participation
- Renewable energy
- Resource scarcity
- Sustainability
- Sustainable development
- WASH
- Water and sanitation
- WEL
- Women's Economic Leadership
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