Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for any institution shows its commitment to sustain development by collaborating with its employees, the local community, and society at large to improve lives in ways that benefits both the institution and its stakeholders. National Water Harvesting and Storage Authority understands the importance of CSR and how it affects both its internal and external activities for the success of the Authority. NWHSA has been involved in the below activities as part of its CSR:
Tree Planting
Forests play an important role in people’s lives. They provide unquantifiable benefits such as improving the climate, regulating stream and river flows, conserving and protecting soil mantle and provide stable habitats for wildlife. Forests are also the backbone of many important economic activities.
Kenya has a small area of reserved forest of about 6%. A Presidential directive issued in June 2018 required all ministries ad parastatals to allocate at least 10% of the CSR budget towards support of afforestation. The purpose of this directive was to increase the country’s forest cover by from 6 – 10% as this would contribute to the conservation of the water tower and reduction of poverty levels.
In an effort to spearhead CSR activities, NWHSA continues to plant trees through different initiatives organized by the parent ministry – Ministry of Water, Sanitation & Irrigation. This will help efforts by the government to increase the forest cover across the country.
COVID-19 prevention
From the onset of the first corona virus case in Kenya in March 2020, the government immediately took stringent measures to curb the global pandemic. Access to water which is a crucial component in the fight against this pandemic was key.
We joined efforts with the water sector institutions in ensuring there was water for handwashing and basic hygiene during the pandemic period. We donated several handwashing and storage tanks to various institutions in different counties.
We shall continue partnering with all our stakeholders to ensure harmonious relationship through participation in various activities aligned with our mandate to uundertake on behalf of the national government, the development of national public water works for water resources storage and flood control.