Problems

There are many problems facing residents of Kibera. Services that are inadequately supplied are things such as Clean Water: which is vital to prevent diseases such as Cholera and Typhoid and provides people with a clean place to drink, bathe and wash clothes. Education Services which can help break the cycle of poverty in slums such as Kibera and give children a chance to get proper, well paying jobs outside of the slums. They can bring higher incomes back to their families and help improve their lives as well. Finally sanitation is a vital service which is largely neglected in Kibera where people wash and clean themselves in rivers where people have dumped rubbish. Living conditions are cramped so disease and sickness spreads quickly. All these services are inadequately provided in Kibera and it is both out responsibility and the governments to fix these issues!

CLEAN WATER:

While Kibera does have a Water Supply it is not reliable and often taps run dry in the slum. As Kibera is technically an illegal settlement, the government is not obliged to provide a consistent, good, clean water supply there. Before citizens of Kibera had to fetch water from the dam, this water was unclean and caused diseases. Now there are two main water pipes but these too can dry up in drought season. The water from these pipes is also unclean as sewage flows through the water. When it rains the sewage mixes with the clean water making the water unsafe. Instead citizens within Kibera have to rely on private water vendors. In there local area the price of water can be from about 3- 5 shillings. In the event of a lack of water in one area people must walk to another vendor which may be quite far away and buy water for a higher price from 8- 10 shillings. This unreliability causes people in Kibera to lose money which they could spend on other important services and also makes life difficult for inhabitants of Kibera.

The Issue with water may be due to Drought in these regions but often water is just not efficiently provided by the government. In almost half of Kibera there is no water. Walking with water cans is tiresome for people in the slum especially in Kibera where they are living just south of the equator. This constant search for water interrupts peoples daily lives: it prevents children from going to school and stops people from attending their jobs. Clean Water is a major problem in Kibera which must be addressed.

EDUCATION SERVICES:

An education is the only way for children to break away from the cycle of poverty they are born into and make  something of their lives outside of Kibera. To get a high paying job,  children must have a certificate of secondary education. That is why  education is an essential to citizens of Kibera. However, schools in Kibera  are expensive, and places are limited. Often many people in Kibera  struggle to even find money to pay rent or buy food. In these situations,  education is often sacrificed.

Schools in Kibera can often experience issues as well. Often they are poorly built with very little equipment or furnishings such as chalk boards, seats, desks or tables. Without these facilities in schools it can be hard for children to focus on their studies and make progress. As well as these issues, some children especially girls cannot even attend school: The constant search for water (as I mentioned above) and the fact that many children work from a very early age means that children often miss school. without this education children become trapped in the slums.

As places in Secondary schools are so expensive, the only way families can afford to send their children to these places is through scholarships. This is why primary education is vital if people are to break the cycle that exists in Kibera!

SANITATION:

Sanitation is one of the biggest problems in Kibera, In many areas of Kibera there are no toilets. In some places latrines are used which are essentially holes in the ground. One latrine is often shared by up to 50 shacks. These holes are then emptied into a nearby river. In some places toilets are connected by pipes to rivers or sometimes sewers. One of these toilets can be used by 200 people in Kibera.  A bucket of water is used to flush the faeces into the river. This is dangerous and unhygenic as water from these rivers may be used by people for washing or drinking. If the water is stagnant (dirty) then it can cause diseases to people like typhoid. When excretion from toilets and latrines are emptied into rivers, the water can carry the faeces downstream to the Kibera Dam, this has rendered, once clean water near the dam, completely unsafe for drinking.

Some sewers exist in Kibera. Often these sewers are badly constructed and leak. Open sewers run down the sides of streets in Kibera. These open sewers often flow through supplies of drinking water. When it rains, the stagnant, sewage water can mix with the pure water. This is a massive health risk to citizens of Kibera. Children in Kibera play with rubbish without knowledge of the health risks they propose. The stench in Kibera is overpowering from the mix of sewage, excretion and rubbish on the streets. Some people use flying toilets which involves excreting into a plastic bag and hurling it into the air during the night. These plastic bags are hardly ever cleared away and are another health risk. Sanitation is a major issue in Kibera. In the slum, water providers have constructed toilets and sewers badly. These problems need to be fixed if Kibera’s sanitation situation is to improve.