Enabling Safe Rural Water Services in Kenya

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。国际社会作出高级别承诺，到2030年确保所有人都能获得安全饮用水(可持续发展目标6.1)。这一雄心反映了安全管理的供水服务对于阻断社区疾病传播的重要性。在低收入的农村地区，水通常是通过手动水泵或小型管道供水系统获得的。尽管在过去几十年里，许多农村社区的水龙头和抽水机的使用情况有所改善，但这些基础设施提供的水的质量往往得不到管理。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。为安装在分散的水系统中而设计的水处理技术--无论是安装在分配系统中，还是安装在集水点(社区共用水龙头和手泵)--可以降低腹泻疾病的风险，并改善公共卫生结果。到目前为止，对供应级农村水处理的研究主要是对过滤和消毒(氯化、紫外线辐射)方法进行评估，重点放在技术效果上。然而，除了技术发展之外，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。“在肯尼亚实现农村安全供水服务”是一个以解决方案为导向的研究项目，该项目将把水、环境卫生和个人卫生(WASH)部门的利益相关者聚集在一起，开发一种在农村供水系统中实施供应级处理的新方法。这一办法将侧重于实现供水服务的可持续运营和维护。该办法将在肯尼亚的两个县开始实施，并将在肯尼亚水务管理委员会的指导下扩大。这项工作的目的是系统和可持续地改善肯尼亚农村、社区和学校的饮用水安全。它将产生可被更广泛地改编和应用的知识，以帮助通过供应级处理促进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.