The Musoni micro-finance has availed a credit facility to women and the youth to enable them buy water tanks.
Happy Gloria, the national Vice Secretary of the Maendeleo ya Wanawake, launched the exercise in Kakamega town Saturday by flagging off 20 water tanks for the women groups.
Gloria said the asset lending project aims at promoting rainwater harvesting in order to create a reliable access to water which could improve women and youth productivity.
In the programme, she stated, each of the groups will receive either a 5,000 or 10,000-litre capacity tank at Sh. 42,000 and 84,000 respectively to help address water supply challenges.
They charge an upfront fee of 4 per cent and the repayment period is 36 months.
She said Maendeleo ya Wanawake has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Musoni to ensure the programme is successful as 85 percent of the clients who respond positively to loan repayment were women groups.
“The provision of financial services to the low income groups in a sustainable manner utilizes credit, savings and other products such as micro-insurance to help families take advantage of income-generating activities,” she said.
The official added that the beneficiaries mainly live in rural areas where water shortage is a common problem.
Mary Ogutu, the secretary to a women group from Shinyalu sub-county, gave an account of the women’s experiences posed by water shortage.
“Women have to walk for over 5 kilometers in search of water and they can only carry a 20-litre jerry can at a time. And so they have to go for several trips to get adequate stock for the family,” she narrated.
She observed that many womenfolk complain of back pain as a result of the heavy water loads and distance travelled daily.
By Sammy Mwibanda
