Role of Kenyan Corporates in Achieving SDG 6
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- March 24, 2021
The 6th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 6) aims to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030.
In 1990, 24% of the world’s population had no access to safe drinking water. The development goal for safe drinking water access set by the United Nations (UN) was to cut this proportion to a half by 2015. This goal, according to the UN, was met in 2010.
The UN agency in its findings notes that in the world today, 3.6 billion people live in areas where water can be scarce at least one month per year and this number could increase to 5 billion by 2050.
UN-Water estimates that 2.1 billion people (3 in 10 people) don’t have access to safe drinking water, while 4.5 billion people (6 in 10 people) lack safe sanitation services, such as toilets and latrines.
Universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene cannot be achieved without the private sector playing a role in it. In Kenya, many cooperate companies have progressively embraced the idea of sustainability as an integral part of their corporate agenda.
Financial institutions in Kenya such as Equity Bank have not been left behind in the fight to ensure proper water management and integrate water stewardship into the framework of the company’s core business.
Equity acknowledges that spending on sustainability efforts as regards water conservation is an investment for the future. It supports community projects that are aligned with its corporate culture in water conservations.
According to a 2020 Geopoll study, it estimates that approximately 29% of borrowers had used at least a part of their loans from Equity for Water and Sanitation provision purposes. This estimate is nearly three times larger than the projected utilization rate found in the 2019 study of 10.5%, pointing to an increased need for these services.
Equity bank has two categories of loans; Maji Loans targeting people who want to buy water tanks, have piped water connections, sink boreholes, purchase pumps and build dams & water pans and Jamii Safi Loans for sanitation facilities like toilets and handwashing points.
Recently, the Bank signed an MoU with Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organization (MYWO), a partnership that will see over 25,000 group affiliates and 4.1 million individual members benefit from financing geared towards MYWO’s Water Harvesting and Storage project, financing for clean energy solutions, banking services and financial education training
Through the Equity Group Foundation (EGF), the lender has stepped up conservation efforts regarding planting trees. Throughout the years, the degradation of trees has led to reduced rainfall because it leads to reduction in natural recycling of moisture from the soils. By planting trees and conservation of water towers, Equity is contributing to ensuring there is sufficient water for future generations.
The Bank partnered with Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and National Environmental Trust Fund (NETFUND), an initiative that will see Equity plant 35 million trees in addition to the Farm Forestry Initiatives that Equity and KFS have previously been championing. They have so far planted over 3.2 million trees.
KFS will provide technical support including the identification of hotspots that require urgent tree cover or rehabilitation of degraded forests. Through this, they will be able to complement government efforts in attaining the 10% tree cover.
While some strides have been made to achieve SDG Number 6 based on information from a 2017 UN study, a lot more still needs to be done to ensure that this goal will be adequately met by 2030.
The water crisis is a socio-political problem as well as an economic one. One thing is clear: businesses have a very important role to play in addressing the issue of water management.
As we marked this year’s International Water Day, it was worth noting that global cooperation among diverse stakeholders is necessary because water issues are global. Water problems in one region impact the economies of other regions, especially if they lead to disruptive conflict, and businesses cannot ignore local problems when their supply chains extend globally.
Therefore, both the private and public institutions need to come together and work towards this common goal of the availability and access to clean water and sanitization.
