Ecotact

Sanitation facts

ecotact — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:12:32 +0000

The Millennium Development Goals target 75% global sanitation coverage by 2015. The cost to reach the milestone is estimated at US$ 14 billion annually through the period. Among other health gains, sanitation is estimated to reduce diarrhoea cases by 391 million worldwide each year.

Sanitation Marketing

ecotact — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:31:58 +0000

Kenya in Bonn Ministerial Declaration on Water and Sanitation

ecotact — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:38:35 +0000

Kenya is one of the sixty countries that signed the Bonn Ministerial Declaration assigning high priority to water and sanitation as vital keys to sustainable development. Kenya is a signatory of the Rio de’ Janeiro declaration making water, sanitation and hygiene a top priority for action on the continent that is seriously affected by lack of basic water and sanitation services. This, however, remains an elusive goal.

Cholera Deaths reflect the state of our Nation

ecotact — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:57:55 +0000

Over 300 Kenyans have recently lost their lives through cholera and many more continue to be at risk. According to Doctor Lukoye Atwoli. As the ministry of public health and sanitation continues to deploy more personnel to the affected areas, more cases keep popping up. Outbreaks of cholera and other diarrhea diseases are practically unheard of in countries that have improved their waste disposal systems and ensured a steady supply of clean drinking water for their citizens. As the Kenyans continue dying of a disease caused by poor hygiene and whose prevention is mostly clean water, we must ask ourselves if we are up to the challenges of the new millennium and on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and the Kenya’s vision 2030.

The Ecotact staff bursted quotes

ecotact — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:28:16 +0000

Oh! so yo are in dirty business?

Judy…” Yeah”

John…. “Do you know tea is an alcohol?”

Totally unrelated but very funny all the same

Sanitation in Kenya

ecotact — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:27:20 +0000

Searching for a Restroom?

Kenyans would totally relate to Akbar Ali who found himself confused by an information board that he thought would direct him to a toilet in Al Mamzar Park in Dubai. “I thought the map of the park would help guide me to the toilets, but I could barely decipher anything. It left a lot of people lost and confused and lost” He told Gulf News Newspaper. He argued the management to maintain navigational sign-boards, something that the Kenyan City and Municipal Councils would also consider doing.

Cholera outbreak kill 119 people in one month.

Over 20 inmates died in Kamiti Maximum prison.
The government has now moved to curb the spread of the disease and is now appealing for Sh553 million from the treasury.
More than 50 other inmates are admitted at both Kenyatta National Hospital and the prison dispensary.
Cases of Cholera have been reported in 14 districts with East Pokot recording the highest deaths.
Nairobi’s Makadara Estate and Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums cholera outbreak claimed over 20 lives and left more than 700 people requiring medical treatment.
Recently the minister for public health and sanitation in the Global Health Conference recently held in Nairobi revealed that paediatric deaths due to diarrhoea exceed those caused by HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.
Only North Eastern, Western and Nyanza provinces have not reported any cholera related illnesses.
In early October 2009, at least 29 people died of cholera and hundreds more were being treated for cholera-related symptoms in the larger Turkana District in the northwest and in the eastern regions of Garbatulla and Laisamis.
In East Baringo is getting worse after 11 bodies were discovered in Kapnyung’uny area along River Suguta.
12 people have been admitted at Lamu district hospital after contracting cholera. There were also outbreaks of water-borne diseases in Magarini and Tana Delta district.
According to WHO, fewer than half the rural population in Kenya had sustainable access to improved drinking water sources and sanitation in 2006.
The population with sustainable access to improved sanitation in urban areas was 19 percent.

Water and hygienic sanitation services to the Mathare Slum Residents.

The Ikotoilet is a complete toilet mall. Beyond the basic sanitation facilities for the slum residents, the slum model Ikotoilet has a Water vending point with UV installation for the water treatment to guarantee clean portable water to the residents.

The Slum Ikotoilet incorporates low-flush toilets in both the ladies and gents toilets, waterless urinals in gent’s toilets, shower facilities, water saving taps and soap dispensers, dry toilet system – a facility for urine harvesting and water conservation, a free-of-charge toilet for the disabled, tanks for rain water harvesting, a changing area for babies, sanitary bins, full length mirror, music, shoe shine vendor, public information point, Snacks kiosks (shops) a barber/ salon shop, and other viable add-on enterprises are also encompassed in the design.

Welcome to the Ecotact Blog

ecotact — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:16:17 +0000

Toilet is part of history of human hygiene yet, toilets have always been associated with germs and the fact that we have to clean them, the fact that unlike other body functions defecation is considered very low, appalling images of public toilets don’t help either in building the perception of a toilet as a dirty place. The Ikotoilet concept provides a different perception; that of a toilet mall and simply looks at toilets for what they are — neat solutions to social problems.

The term Ikotoilet is derived from ecological sanitation. Iko is also a Swahili word depicting existing. Ikotoilet is a facility where the users pay a small fee to meet the operational and maintenance costs of the facilities. Ikotoilets integrates other add-ons depending on viability and context in order to ensure sustainability. Iko toilet is an initiative of Ecotact Limited, an environmental development company initiated in 2007 and founded by David Kuria a Kenyan Ashoka Fellow who is also winner of The Schwab Foundation’s Africa Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2009: the first person to get such an award in sub-Saharan Africa and a 2008 winner of Global Water Challenge. The Ikotoilet has received the Ashoka recognition 2007, Global Water Challenge finalist award 2008 by the World Toilet Organisation and an inclusion into the Hall Of Fame of Sanitation.