The WASH department ensures easy access to clean and safe water, hygiene and proper sanitation in the community. The department has done extensive work in Kisumu County and has also extended its services to Kitui County-Mwingi constituency. Activities in the department include  borehole drilling, pump repair, pump rehabilitation, and construction of toilets and hand washing facilities in schools, churches, and communities that are in need. The department also offers health and hygiene conversations, alongside provision of re-usable sanitary towels for beneficiaries in the sites where the departmental activities have been conducted.

Objectives

• To ensure that the communities have access to safe drinking water.
• To ensure access to handwashing facilities in targeted communities and institutions
• To reduce open defecation in communities through the construction of latrines.
• To improve menstrual hygiene management among young women and girls in the community by providing reusable sanitary towels and conducting menstrual hygiene education.

STADA in partnership with Life Water Canada, drills new boreholes, an activity preceded by community / institutional mobilization with priority given to areas where water is a primary need and there is no water source nearby. We drill boreholes in public places such as churches, schools, markets and communities in need of water. This we do to ensure there is a sense of ownership by all members of the community, this way they take better care of the boreholes. STADA has managed to drill 153 boreholes in Kisumu County since its inception.

The pump repair  section deals with the repair of broken pumps within the community by replacing parts of a pump that are either broken or worn out. Since the program started, the STADA pump repair team has repaired 1158 Pumps.

Pump rehabilitation involves reconstructing the whole pump and replacing all the old parts, including slabbing. 237 pumps have been rehabilitated by the team.

HH talks are conducted in areas where either borehole drilling, plumbing or rehabilitation has been conducted. Areas covered include water safety (quality, contamination and associated health problems, treatment, safe storage), sanitation (safe waste disposal, environmental sanitation), and hygiene (menstrual hygiene, handwashing, and body hygiene). Since inception STADA has offered 1545 health and hygiene conversations.

Open defecation is one of the challenges crippling the public health sector since it is responsible for most cases of water-borne diseases. STADA works to curb this challenge by constructing pit latrines, especially in schools. The result is a clean environment with limited fecal contamination. STADA has managed to construct 11 pit latrines in schools within the community.

Hand washing became common during the Covid-19 pandemic, as a way to curb the disease. STADA took it up as a platform to boost sanitation in the affected schools and communities. STADA also provides water tanks to schools to ensure that there is constant water flow in the institutions and public places. Throughout the implementation period, STADA has managed to construct  Handwashing stations and set up 11 Water tanks in schools and the community.