Enabling Safe Rural Water Services in Kenya

在撒哈拉以南非洲农村地区，五分之四的人无法获得安全饮用水。国际社会做出了高级别承诺，确保到2030年人人享有安全饮用水（可持续发展目标6.1）。这一目标反映了安全管理的供水服务对阻断社区疾病传播的重要性。在低收入的农村地区，用水往往是通过手泵或小型自来水系统。虽然在过去几十年中，许多农村社区获得水龙头和手泵的机会有所改善，但这一基础设施提供的水的质量往往没有得到管理。对于大多数家庭来说，由于成本和时间要求，自己处理水并不是一个合理的选择。设计用于分散式供水系统的水处理技术-无论是在分配系统还是在收集点（社区共享水龙头和手泵）-都可以降低疟疾的风险并改善公共卫生成果。到目前为止，对农村供水处理的研究已经评估了过滤和消毒（氯化、紫外线辐射）方法，重点是技术效率。然而，除了技术开发之外，还需要进一步研究，以了解如何广泛和可持续地实施治疗干预措施。特别是，必须解决与供应链、运营和维护以及融资有关的关键挑战。“在肯尼亚提供安全的农村用水服务”是一个以解决问题为导向的研究项目，该项目将使水、环境卫生和个人卫生部门的利益攸关方聚集在一起，制定一种新的方法，在农村供水系统中实施供水一级的处理。这一办法将侧重于促进供水服务的可持续运营和维护。该办法将开始在肯尼亚的两个州实施，并将在肯尼亚供水服务监管委员会的指导下扩大实施范围。这项工作的目的是系统和可持续地改善肯尼亚农村社区和学校环境中的饮用水安全。它将产生可加以调整和更广泛应用的经验教训，通过供应层面的处理，帮助推动农村地区普遍获得安全饮用水。

Four out of five people in rural Sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to safe drinking water. The international community made high-level commitments to secure access to safe drinking water for all by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goal 6.1). This ambition reflects the importance of safely managed water services for disrupting disease transmission in communities. In low-income, rural settings water is often accessed through hand-pumps or small piped water systems. While access to taps and handpumps has improved for many rural communities over the last few decades, the quality of the water being provided by this infrastructure is often not managed. And for most households, treating water themselves is not a reasonable option because of the costs and time requirement. Water treatment technologies that are designed for installation in decentralised water systems - either in the distribution system or at points of collection (community shared taps and handpumps) - can reduce the risk of diarrheal disease and improve public health outcomes. So far, research on supply-level rural water treatment has evaluated filtration and disinfection (chlorination, UVC radiation) methods, focusing on technological effectiveness. Beyond the technology development, however, there is a need for further research to understand how treatment interventions can be implemented broadly and sustainably. Particularly, key challenges related to supply chains, operation and maintenance, and financing must be addressed. 'Enabling Safe Rural Water Services in Kenya' is a solution-oriented research project that will bring together water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector stakeholders to develop a new approach for implementing supply-level treatment in rural water systems. This approach will focus on enabling sustainable operation and maintenance of water services. Implementation of the approach will begin in two counties in Kenya and will expand under the direction of the Kenyan Water Services Regulatory Board. The purpose of this work is to systemically and sustainably improve drinking water safety in rural community and school settings in Kenya. It will generate learnings that can be adapted and applied more broadly to help advance universal access to safe drinking water in rural areas through supply-level treatment.