Water Cabinet Secretary, Eugene Wamalwa officially opened the first Kenyan -German water conference on October 10, 2016 at the Kenya Water Institute (KEWI), Nairobi. The conference aims to initialize knowledge transfer and exchange experience in various water technology and training solutions. The forum is being attended by the Kenyan private sector, political decision makers and representatives of water utilities with technology experts from Germany.
The German experts will comprise subject matter experts, industry professionals and company representatives, who conduct workshops on the basis of their expertise.
“This is a great platform for the private sector and government stakeholders to engage in water technologies and invest in local capacity building among engineers in the water and waste water management. It is also an opportunity to grow the Kenyan-German relationship in the country as we try to achieve universal water access under Vision 2030. They have been our partners in offering vocational training among our technicians, experts and water /wastewater industry professionals in the last 50 years,” said Wamalwa.
Since 2009, a total of 1.6 million people in poor urban areas have benefitted from access to clean water through German-Kenyan cooperation. In Western Kenya, a further 400,000 now have sustainable access to water.
Additionally, the German government via its German embassy has committed KES28bn (€280million) grant to improve and build various water technology solutions for Kenya. in the area of training, about 150 Kenyans have been trained on various methods of irrigation as 200 more are being targeted for the exercise. This will aid in building local capacity in Kenya.
“We are very excited to see the first Kenyan-German Water week come to realization. Our partnership intentionally seeks to impart skills that will enable the uptake of best practices in water management,” stated German Ambassador to Kenya, H. E Jutta Frasch.
The CS also got a chance to speak about the progress of Galana-Kulalu irrigation scheme; he said that the model farm is progressing very well and that he is set to tour the area soon. He continues “We are in the process of releasing 1,000 bags of food that will be used as relief food in areas such as Tana River, Kilifi and Garissa as well as other countries, which have been succumbed to drought or farming situations.”
The conference ending on Friday, October 14,will focus on areas like drilling technologies and construction practices, wastewater treatment and reuse, waste water and sewage solutions, water purification and decentralized solutions, urban and agro-industrial wastewater treatment add how to start a business in the water sector.
