National Bank, Impact Water Partnership To Benefit 12,000 Schools With Safe Drinking Water

National Bank and Impact Water, with support from the Ministry of Education, have launched a partnership that is set to provide safe drinking water to over 4 million students in 12,000 schools across the country by end of 2019.

The Bank will provide distribution, logistic and financial service-support to public primary and secondary schools which are its customers. It will also assist participating schools acquire the necessary infrastructure from Impact Water.

Speaking at the launch, National Bank Managing Director Mr Wilfred Musau said the water situation require urgent attention, not only in Kenya, but globally. He noted that the Bank as a corporate citizen is committed to support the government in attainment of the set Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

“Water scarcity affects more than 40 percent of the global population, and that figure is projected to rise. That means 4 in 10 people lack access to safe water. We believe our efforts as National Bank in partnership with relevant organizations like impact water, we will make a difference. As we celebrate 50 years of service to Kenyans, we wish to make an impact in the lives of Kenyans and we strongly believe that access to safe water and sanitation can resolve many water related problems and empower the communities,”Mr. Muasu said.

“The campaign consists of two phases. During phase 1 which runs until Dec. 31st, 2019, National Bank will support all its existing public school customers. Phase 2 begins in January 2020 and will include additional public school customers who open accounts with National Bank during or after Phase 1 period,” Mr Musau said.

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The bank will unveil micro-loans to qualified schools to make safe drinking water even more affordable. Participating schools will also receive replacement cartridges or tablets through any of the National Banks branches across Kenya.

Impact Water delivers safe drinking water through installation and maintenance of high-performance, water purification systems which use technologies such as UV and chlorine treatment. The company uses Aquatab technologies and a social business model to provide   affordable, sustainable, easy to maintain and long-lasting water to for schools.

“Impact Water’s business model actively addresses the key barriers to the uptake of institutional water purification technologies found in most developing countries including lack of credit and financing, low product awareness, insufficient product and system maintenance and generally weak distribution network. The partnership with National Bank is key for us as it will help us overcome these barriers,” said Mr Evan Haigler, CEO of Impact Water.

Currently in Kenya, over 4,000 schools in 36 counties are using Impact Water systems every day, supplying over 2,000,000 children with affordable, safe drinking water. The partnership with National Bank is expected to cover additional 7,000 schools as national roll-out begins.