GWWI Women and Water: Congrats to GWWI Grad Elected Board Chairperson for her Water District!

The Global Women's Water Initiative is so excited to announce that Catherine Wanjohi, GWWI 2011 Graduate has been elected as the Chairperson for the Water Company Board for Naivasha District in Kenya! 


Catherine is the Director of Life Bloom, an incredible organization that uplifts ex-commercial sex-workers by offering training and support so they can generate income through dignified vocations such as craftwork, tailoring, hairdressing, beauty therapy and such. In 2011, after attending our Women and Water Training where she learned how to educate the community about clean water, sanitation and proper hygiene (WASH) practices, how to test water to see if it is contaminated and how to build the Biosand filters to provide clean water for their communities, she was able to add this powerful service to Life Bloom's stable of vocational trainings. 

When Catherine and her partner Susan Njeri returned home from the GWWI training, and shared the technology with their team, they were able to gain a contract to install Biosand Filters in a local women's prison to provide clean water for the prisoners and guards. 

As a result of Catherine's new and successful water program, she applied for an open position on the Water Company Board for Naivasha District.  In one of our past blogs, Catherine expressed how shocked and excited she was to have been selected as one of two women on the nine person Board. And now to have been elected as the Board Chair is a testament to her leadership, her understanding of her local water issues, and her vision for a future of water security in her region.

We are not only thrilled for Catherine as a powerful voice for women and leader for her local water issues, but also for Naivasha District for recognizing the importance of women being included in the decision-making process regarding community water actions. Although the majority of people on a district-level policy Board are men, to be led by a woman, it is clear that the local government understands that an efficient way forward is to put the leadership into the hands of those who are most affected by lack of water and sanitation - women. This is a huge step for women as changemakers in their communities, and GWWI is so proud to have been able to support Catherine to step into her leadership as a Water Champion! Brava!

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GWWI Women and Water: GWWI Graduate Wins Top Prize from Ministry of Water and Irrigation

Congratulations to GWWI Graduates Lindah Wameya and Jane Wanjiko Joseph of Kilili Self-Help Program (KSHP) who won the Top Prize in the "Water For CIties" Ministry of Water and Irrigation National Competition! Lindah and Jane won for their essay promoting what they learned at Global Women's Water Initiative Training in Uganda last summer - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education (WASH) and the Biosand Filter as a viable solution for safe drinking water. Here is an excerpt from their award-winning work:

KSHP community member learns to build the Biosand Filter 

KSHP’s vision and mission statement is to be a center of excellence promoting eco-health for economic development by safeguarding and enhancing eco-health for improved livelihoods through research and extension services to enhance adoption of technologies by local communities for food security and ecosystem health. 

KSHP operates in a cosmopolitan community whose main activity is farming. The people in this community draw their waters from wells, protected springs, borehole rivers, hand pumps and tanks especially during rainy seasons. KSHP conducts trainings at grassroots levels on water, sanitation and hygiene with an emphasis household water treatment using biosand water filters.


The economic growth and scale of urbanization in Trans-Nzoia District has a high environmental cost. Urban environment services are inadequate and pollution levels are high. Cities and towns suffer from high rates of air, water and land pollution, creating a serious threat to public health. Inadequate portable water suppliers, inadequate solid waste management and wastewater collection are a cute problem. KSHP improves drinking water, and water used for other domestic purposes through household water treatment technology (Biosand water filter)

District Chief lends her hand to build Biosand Filters

The Biosand water filter is a modified form of traditional slow sand filter in such a way that filters can be built on a smaller scale group and operated intermittently. These modifications make the Biosand water filter suitable for household or small groups. The Biosand filter is produced locally anywhere in the world using materials that are readily available. The Biosand filter is used as part of multi-barrier approach which is the best way to reduce the health risk of drinking unsafe water. Barriers from pathogen occur in each of the steps; protection of the source of water, sedimentation, filtration and finally safe storage after filtration.

The Biosand water filter when installed with required ratio has proved that disease causing pathogens found in contaminated water (E-coli) are removed ninety-nine percent. It is easily maintained by the household therefore it does not require skilled personnel to operate and carry out daily care and maintenance. The Biosand filter is irreplaceable when well-kept it has a life span of up to eight generations. Construction and installation of the biosand water filter is done by community members themselves with a minimum training.

District Chief receives her Certificate of Completion as a
Biosand Filter Implementer and WASH Educator

The community has already adopted and coped with the biosand technology since it was

incepted, it is one cheap, appropriate, accessible and easily managed method of household water treatment. There are also reduced incidences of waterborne diseases among the vulnerable persons. Income generation among women and the youth has increased with the implementation of Biosand filters. Immediately after the community was trained on construction and installation of the Biosand water filter the demand for filter is high, this illustrates that filters are widely accepted regardless of religion, race, age and status.

The whole process from construction installation of Biosand water filter is environmental

friendly unlike boiling water which needs firewood (fuel).

Apart from water, sanitation and hygiene, the community also participates in environmental promotion practices i.e. agro forestry, riverbank protection, re-afforestation and soil erosion conservation among others all aimed climate change and mitigation. Kilili as an organization empowers the community on renewable energies where women are trained on solar cooking, making solar cookit and fireless cookers as an income for women. This has been a tremendous activity for women, they enjoy practicing, it cuts down the cost of fuel, saves time and energy as well as mitigating climate change.

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GWWI: Women and Water on Wednesdays: Kenya to Enact Rainwater Harvesting Act - Great Opportunity for GWWI Grads

Posted by Gemma Bulos

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Great news for GWWI Kenya Grads! According to the Kenyan Ministry of Water Deputy Director of Water Resources Juma Omondi, the Kenya Rainwater Harvesting Act

will be enacted by the end of 2012. The law will advocate for the integration of household and industrial rainwater harvesting (RWH) technologies. And Nairobi will join the likes of Indian cities New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore requiring new homes to have rainwater harvesting infrastructure before the building can be approved.

Building roof catchment and ferro cement
for school

How does this open opportunities for graduates of the Global Women's Water Initiative Training Program?

GWWI teaches women to build simple water and sanitation technologies to provide clean water in their communities. One of the technologies most in demand is rainwater harvesting and safe water storage. 

Women in Africa and in other developing regions can sometimes walk up to 8 hours per day looking for water. On top of that, they have to carry up to 44lbs of water on their heads, shoulders and backs for use at home for cooking, drinking and washing. Collecting rainwater and storing it for future use can alleviate some, if not all of that burden depending on the rainfall and the size of the storage tank.

Rose makes an interlocking stabilized
soil block (IS

This past year, some GWWI graduates learned to build roof catchments and a storage tank made out of interlocking stabilized blocks (ISSB). The ISSB tank is a relatively new technology that is now gaining traction in Kenya and the East Africa region because it costs less and is more durable than the other alternatives like a polytank (plastic) and ferrocement tank. The ISSB is made out of marram (orange clay/soil), sand, a little cement and water. This mixture is compressed in a block making machine that requires no electricity just human sweat. It's also manufactured in Nairobi (Kenya's capital city), further keeping the construction and material costs down. Most simple brick making techniques require drying in the sun, whereas the ISSB is ready for use in 24 hours regardless of the weather. What makes this technology cutting edge is the shape of the bricks. Unlike traditional bricks that are flat and rectangular in shape, the ISSB bricks are shaped to interlock like a puzzle, which reduces the amount of cement for bonding and creates a stronger foundation and structure for the tank. 

Rounded ISSBs for tanks

With this new policy development, GWWI grads can potentially provide professional construction and education services to meet the water needs of their communities. GWWI is excited to support our graduates to lead the way towards introducing cutting edge technologies that use local materials, require no electricity and can be built by WOMEN! 

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GWWI Women, Water on Wednesdays: Clean Water to Supplement Food Security in Kitale, Kenya

Jane and Lindah are powerful leaders in Kilili Self Help Project (KSHP), a community based organization in Kitale, Kenya. KSHP works with poor farmers in the Western North Rift of Kenya, teaching them the skills of biointensive farming methods. Implementing grass roots development work, they aim to improve food security, soil fertility and empower communities. View video . Jane and Lindah were sponsored by our friends at the American Jewish World Service, fighting hunger, disease and poverty in the developing world.

Lindah at training with BSF

Jane and Lindah knew that focusing on community health and wellness through Food Security needed to be supplemented by ensuring that families also had access to clean water. Although, their communities had water available, it was not always safe water. At the Global Women’s Water Initiative training in Kampala, Uganda in July 2011, they learned how to build the Biosand Filter (BSF), a simple household water treatment made out of local materials that removes up 90-100% of bacteria, parasites and viruses.

Jane shoveling in Kitale

When they returned home, they tested their communities water using the Portable Microbiology Lab, a simple water testing method that identifies contaminated water. After discovering that many of their local water sources were not safe, they hosted a BSF training with GWWI training partner Connect Africa, inviting volunteers from many of the different villages where they work. Training alongside Connect Africa solidified Jane and Lindah’s knowledge of the BSF as well as added a much needed service to KSHPs roster of sustainable technologies.

Participants of the training making BSF water filters!

Word spread like wildfire when the participants went home and shared the BSF as a solution for their water issues. Soon Jane and Lindah were being asked to train more people. Parents of students at Angel Academy School in Kiminini where the typhoid rate was very high, raised money to host a training and build enough filters for over 500 students! The students even helped!

Girls washing sand for BSF during Training in Kitale

They were also invited to share the BSF technology for the Agricultural Society of Kenya attended by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. 

Ministry of water learning of the project

 In addition, they helped local women start a micro-business through a waste management strategy making solar cookits as well as crocheted bags, mats, hats etc out of plastic bags they learned from GWWI Trainer Faustine Odaba!

Ladies trying on hats and bags made of crocheted plastic bags.

KSHP has trained over 116,000 families in Biointensive Farming! We have no doubt that they will be able to reach out to those families and more with clean water, waste management and micro-business strategies!

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