Background
WaterFund is a Kenyan State Corporation with a mandate to assist in the financing of water services to areas of Kenya without adequate services. Kenya is very vulnerable to climate change due to the significant economic dependence on natural resources based sectors such as agriculture, livestock, wildlife and tourism, especially in the arid and semi-arid land areas.
This, in combination with the existing limited capacity to integrate climate change consequences into the country’s water sector financing and implementation framework inspired the choice of project topic. The work builds on the feasibility study on “Catalysing low cost green technologies for sustainable water service delivery in Kenya “.
Description
To strengthen the incorporation of climate change considerations in the water sector financing and implementation framework the following actions were executed:
1. Capacity building workshops for WaterFund Board of trustees, management and staff
2. Design and dissemination of education and communication materials on water and climate change financing nexus
3. Development of concept notes on greening & Climate change to further build WaterFund capacity in bolstering resource mobilization towards addressing water security issues in Kenya
4. Establishment of Climate Change investment within the WaterFund
Impact
As a result of the ITP project, the Water Fund has implemented a Climate Change strategy and established a Climate Change unit. The strategy connects climate change with the water sector, including partnerships and resource mobilization. Water Fund is also financing renewable & green technologies infrastructure for sustainability, as illustrated in in Figure 1.
Lessons learned
There is a need for further focusing on climate resilience and reduced carbon emissions in the water and sanitation sector. This can be achieved through mobilization of more resources into the sector through the design, implementation and reporting stages of projects and programmes for sustainability. This calls for innovative ways of mobilizing and financing the water sector to ensure that Kenya meets its national demands for water for domestic, agricultural and industrial needs.