Water Crisis in Kenya

Kenya, a country in East Africa, has been a focus of CMF mission activity for over 30 years. About 50 percent of Kenyans live below the poverty line. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has resulted in growing destitution and unprecedented levels of poverty.

The water crisis in Kenya has disrupted social and economic activities throughout the country for years, and is only expected to continue. It is due not only to successive years of drought, but also to poor management of the water supply, deforestation, pollution by untreated sewage and a thirty-fold population increase since 1900.

Only 61 percent of the rural population of Kenya has access to an improved drinking water source. In some areas, women must walk up to six kilometers and spend three hours each day hauling water. The water is not only contaminated at its sources but also from the way it is transported and stored. Very few Kenya households boil their water.

The pastoral Maasai people and their cattle suffer when the rains are late or drought results. Although they are growing in their Christian faith and know living water, many Maasai still need assistance with having pure water available for every part of life. Overflow-Water for Maasai is providing easy and sustainable methods. Click here to learn more.

CMF has been working among the Turkana people for more than 30 years and has been involved in clean water projects with them since 1995. To learn more about these projects click here.

CMF missionaries in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, focus on ministry to the urban poor in the city’s slums, leading to several clean water and sanitation projects. You can learn about these projects here.