LifeStraw Water Filters for Rural Kenya

By distributing water filters to families in rural Kenya, this project eliminates the need to boil water over wood fires to make it safe for drinking. The new filters allow families to purify their drinking water without releasing harmful pollutants into the air. They also reduces the burden of firewood collection, which typically falls on women and girls, and alleviate pressure on local wood resources. 

The Sustainable Deployment of the LifeStraw Family in rural Kenya is an ongoing Clean Development Mechanism project in the Western Province of the Republic of Kenya that has been independently verified by The Gold Standard. The project generates carbon reductions through production and distribution of LifeStraw Water Filters that eliminate the need for fuel combustion to sanitize potable water fit for consumption. Each filter requires no energy to use and has been shown to provide 18,000 liters of clean water for a family of five over a three year period. At the end of the three year period each filter will be replaced using the funds generated from carbon credits.

Over 1,000,000 individuals have been targeted as recipients based on the results from independent research and three stakeholder meetings in the region.
In addition to supporting the UN Millenium Development Goal of halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation, this project also reduces depletion of natural resources related to the cutting of trees, relieves female children and mothers of families from collecting firewood to boil water, improves indoor air quality to reduce risk of ill-health in women and children, reduces daily fuel costs on low-income regions and provides beneficial employment to local residents during the established distribution, monitoring and replacement phases of the project.