National Bank has partnered with Impact water with the support of the Ministry of Education to provide safe drinking water to over 4 Million students in 5,000 schools across the country by the 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.
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. Currently in Kenya, over 4,000 schools in 36 counties are using Impact Water systems every day to supply over 2,000,000 children with affordable, safe drinking water.
The campaign by the bank consists of two phases. In 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. 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.
Speaking at the launch, National Bank Managing Director Mr. Wilfred Musau, had this to say, “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.”