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The Cabinet Secretary Water, Sanitation and Irrigation Zachariah Njeru EGH accompanied by the Principal Secretary for State department of Water and Sanitation Julius Korir, CBS are among the Ministry top leadership attending the ongoing 10th World Water Forum in Bali, Indonesia. The CS had the pleasure to deliver a Keynote address to a High Level Panel discussion organized by Tri Hita Karana Forum and the World Economic Forum.
The theme of the discussion is“Blended Finance for Global Sustainable Water” held at the Hibiscus and Frangipani Room, Bali International Convention Centre.
Water being a critical resource for humanity, blended financing solutions and Public-Private Partnerships as a means of tackling the funding gap in the water sector is the way to go.
The CS thanked the Tri-Hita Karana Forum and the World Economic Forum for extending this invite to share the Kenyan experience in developing financing approaches towards achieving SDG 6 and accelerating water resilience.
At the Forum, the CS had the opportunity to pitch for Kenya’s ambitious plan to develop 100 mega dams to boost water harvesting for domestic, irrigation, hydro power generation and flood mitigation as its primary objectives. In the plan, the country seeks to draw resources from the private sector through Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives to achieve the targeted objectives for the betterment of services provision, enhance economic development, job and wealth creation.
The CS had the opportunity to reiterate the Government’s commitment towards providing an enabling environment and necessary support measures to the initiative including developing a robust legal and policy framework to guide private sector funding under PPP. The 34 dams have already been identified, through feasibility studies and forwarded to investors for expression of interest, a big step towards achieving water security.
Kenya remains open to business and creating partnerships with Development Partners in the Water, Sanitation and Irrigation sector.