Had it not been for the little efforts such as construction of new latrines, distribution of water treatment pills and door-to-door sanitation campaigns, a village submerged by floods in the wake of Covid-19 might have sunk into unbearable public health crisis.
With submerged latrines and pools of water dotting all-over, malaria,cholera and diarrhoea outbreaks seemed inevitable for residents of Chuowe on the shores of Lake Victoria unless urgent actions were taken.
Sadly, every available coin and attention was channelled towards the newly emerging pandemic. Meanwhile the floods wreaking havoc in more than 20 counties ticked fast towards a humanitarian crisis particularly in western part of the country where flash-floods had become catastrophic.
According to Kenya Red Cross Society estimates, the floods had displaced over 116,000 people in the country as of May last year. In Chuowe, Homa Bay over 100 families whose homes had been submerged by the floods were either hosted by their relatives or sought refuge in nearby schools and churches.
Besides the flash floods caused by the heavy rainfall in the area, the catastrophe was exacerbated by a back-flow of Lake Victoria that broke its banks. The Lake Victoria Basin Commission said in a statement that the water body rose to a new record level of 13.42 metres – marginally higher than the 13.41-metre mark recorded in 1964.
Willis Omulo, chairman of Aluora Makare Community Based Organisation, an environmental advocacy group, recounted that the floods came at night, hence locals couldn’t salvage much. Houses and latrines at the nearby shopping centre were also submerged causing a public health scare, pointed Omulo.
“Locals here do not have any other water for domestic use except water from the lake. Therefore there was a panic of potential water-borne disease outbreak after the floods contaminated our source of water with latrine sludge,” the activist added.
With the plight of the flood victims obviously at stake, community leaders, county government and humanitarian organisations developed quick interventions to cushion the already helpless flood victims against further crises.
Richard Muga, the Homa Bay County’s health Chief Executive Officer (CEC) in, said while the moves were rushed to respond to the urgent need, they managed to avoid the worst.
“The lake’s backwash flooded toilets, which posed a deadly risk to the communities who lack piped water. The county recruited community health workers to conduct regular health talks, and distribute water treatment pills among other public health interventions,” he said.
Since then, Muga said that the county had not witnessed any insurgence in malaria or water-borne diseases such as cholera.
Grace Oyango, a mother of seven, who sought refuge at a local primary school with her family explained that whenever they ran out of water treatment pills, they would boil their drinking water.
“There were so many families sharing the school compound. Luckily the county government urgently constructed more latrines,” she recounted.
WATER TREATMENT
But community health workers, she noted, played a crucial role through their concerted door-to-door campaigns on proper hygiene and sanitation.
One such community health worker was Emily Opiyo who was in charge of about 138 households with over 600 families. Emily explained that even as they sustained their training on proper hygiene, they also encouraged families to be innovative and use what they have to manage the situation.
According to Emily, water treatment tablets are not readily available all the time for distribution.
“This time for instance free mosquito nets were not distributed but we advised locals to use their old nets instead; advised them to sew the torn ones and to always sleep under the nets,” explained Emily, adding that community health workers were also training residents to construct pits latrines using plastic drums or concrete culverts to stop the pits from sinking during floods.
The new construction technique includes digging a pit latrine, after which a concrete culvert or plastic drum is sunk inside the pit as a reinforcement on the walls.
“The technology stops the pit from sinking or emptying sludge into water sources even when the latrine is submerged by floods,” she says.
However, the biggest challenge with the new pit latrine technologies is that few residents can afford the materials, added the health worker.
She added that sanitisers and frequent hand-washing measures introduced as part of Covid-19 protocol had helped a great deal in dealing with poor-hygiene related infections.
Access to clean water and proper sanitation facilities, according to researchers are important in safeguarding the health of people and communities.
In Kenya, diarrhoeal diseases are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among children under five, attributed to inadequate safe water, sanitation and hygiene.
The World Bank estimates that 19,500 people, including 17,100 children, die every year in the country because of diarrhoea.
DISCONNECTING POWER
A study conducted in 2017 by Netherlands Development Organisation estimates that Homa Bay County loses Sh920 million each year due to poor sanitation-related causes, including losses due to time taken to access facilities, premature death, healthcare costs and hampered productivity.
Indiscriminate sand harvesting and floods having made it difficult for electric poles to remain standing, electricity suppliers Kenya Power decided to disconnect the village from the national grid. But the village is not in darkness since many residents are using solar lighting.
“When people harvest sand they leave the ground closer to the water table, eventually when it rain such places turn into pools which then attract mosquitoes. Therefore we are raising awareness and strongly campaigning against unregulated sand harvesting in the area” pointed out Omulo, an environmental crusader.
This story was first published in Business Daily
