Lack of clean water in Kenya is an ongoing crisis that’s affecting a large percentage of the population. See how one man and his organization Start with One Kenya is helping.
Disease-free drinking water should be a basic right for anyone, but for millions in Kenya that isn’t the case. According to the Water.org website, “With a population of 46 million, 41 percent of Kenyans still rely on unimproved water sources, such as ponds, shallow wells and rivers, while 59 percent of Kenyans use unimproved sanitation solutions. These challenges are especially evident in the rural areas and the urban slums. Only 9 out of 55 public water service providers in Kenya provide continuous water supply, leaving people to find their own ways of searching for appropriate solutions to these basic needs.”
Bill Coble, a youth pastor from North Carolina, moved to Kenya to help. He started the nonprofit Start with One Kenya and has dedicated his life to helping the country.
“Every year more than 2 million people, mostly children, die from waterborne disease. Fifty percent of all the illness in the world is caused by unsafe water. Globally, unsafe water kills more people every year than violence, including war. Children are the worst affected because they don’t have the resilience to fight water borne illness. As if the numbers on death and disease weren’t sufficiently compelling, many people in developed nations are shocked when they begin to comprehend the vast number of people in the world who have no access to any water at all. Clean water is at the root of many challenges that face most of the world,” Coble said.
Bill and his Start with One Kenya team, which includes his wife Kim (Chat) Coble, whom he met in Kenya, distribute water filters in communities that don’t have access to clean water. I met up with him in Nakuru and watched the inspiring way he’s making clean water available to others.