The Foundation Executive Director, Prof Ngila attended a STI workshop in line with the African Foundation for women and Youth n Education STI focus areas. The Workshop was organized by Kenya National Commission for UNESCO (KNATCOM) on 19th – 20th February 2024, in Naivasha, Kenya, to share ideas and experiences during the National Water Stakeholders Consultative and Sensitization Workshop.
The importance of quality water to life on Earth cannot be over emphasized, and it’s because of this that it was included in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals as Goal no. 6 (Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all) and its 8 targets.
Water is therefore intricately linked directly or indirectly to almost all the SDGs as it is essential for poverty eradication, gender equality, food security, and the conservation of ecosystems: SDG 2 (Zero hunger) and SDG 6 (Clean and affordable water and sanitation), poverty reduction (SDG 1) and SDG 3 good health).
At present, Kenya is considered a water-scarce country, with surface water pollution and aquifer depletion being a common phenomenon. For water to be provided in sufficient quantities and in good quality, sanitation and treatment costs must be incurred to make it suitable for human consumption, lest it result in high human morbidity and mortality. The water scenario has been further exacerbated by climate change and water variability, making water quality and quantity levels unpredictable.
The development of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme ninth strategy (IHP-IX 2022-2029) is important in guiding member states on priority country-specific interventions in the next eight years. The need to bring everyone on board at a country level is important in prioritizing activities for implementation but also to ensure ease of monitoring and evaluation for purposes of reporting progress. Against this backdrop, it is increasingly vital that interventions leveraging on inter- and transdisciplinary engagement, collaborations and partnerships that we need to bring together all actors and stakeholders involved. The National Water Stakeholders Consultative and Sensitization Workshop, aimed to contribute to the science-policy interphase as ascribed in UNESCO’s water strategy for 2022-2029, entitled-“Science for a Water Secure World in a Changing Environment” (IHP-IX).
