Mount Kenya University (MKU) researcher Dr. Peter Kirira has been awarded a grant to conduct research on safe water uptake in 20 Laikipia County schools. He received the award from the Talloires Network (TN) of Engaged Universities and Open Society University Network (OSUN) to support engaged scholarship.
Dr. Kirira is among faculty working to develop long-term, sustainable community partnerships as a central part of their research, with a goal to develop shared knowledge about issues that align with OSUN and TN priorities.
Since 2017, Dr. Kirira has implemented research projects in collaboration with Partners for Care (PFC), an NGO, in the area of safe drinking water handling, distribution, and storage. His latest project, titled “Community partnerships and adoption of safe water in rural schools of Kenya”, kicks off in January.
He plans to involve faculty members and postgraduate students in the implementation of the project.
The proposed research is a follow-up to a roll-out of water backpacks that was implemented in mid-2021 to 66 primary schools of Laikipia County. The objective of the study are: To determine the utilisation level of water backpacks by the pupils in beneficiary institutions; to determine the extent to which this intervention has affected the uptake of safe water at home; and to determine the attitude of the community on the introduction of water backpacks as an alternative to jerrycans in transport and storage
of water.
Says Dr Kirira: “For every primary school, we distributed a backpack per class. We added two packs for the staffroom and administrative offices. Approximately 42,000 pupils and 1,000 teachers have so far benefitted from the earlier project in Laikipia County.”
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