Marching for Quality Water: PSI Affiliates in Kenya march to promote water safety on World Water Day 2018

The global theme for this year’s celebration is “Nature for Water.”

Demonstrators waved placards and banners that read “Water is Vital for Job Creation,” “Government to Allocate More Funds for Water,” “Provision of Water is a Government Obligation,” “Water is Not A Market Good,” “Say No To Privatization of Water,” “Protect Water Catchment Areas,” and so on. The march, which lasted four hours, took the activists to the Parliament House, County Offices and eventually to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation.  

Receiving the delegation, the Chief Administrative Secretary, Winnie Guchu, expressed gratitude to the unions for marking the day through this march, which she believes is to create awareness and promote water as a basic human right for all. 

She assured them of closer collaboration with the public in the management of water, with emphasis on the quality of water.

“Awareness creation is critical in the water sector and this is why we call for the harmonization of water management, and encourage all of us to adopt water harvesting practices across all levels – from households to the government,” she said.

A Director of Regulatory Authority at the Ministry, an engineer by profession, speaking at the event, also acknowledged PSI for making available research that has today become instrumental in the formulation of the 2010 Water Act in Kenya.  

PSI affiliates, Kenya County Government Workers Union (KCGWU); Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS); and Kenya Union of Commercial, Food and Allied Workers (KUCFAW), were all in attendance.