A Year Later: Challenges Eliminated!

Students at Kitagwa Primary School used to have to bring water with them on their way to school and then leave again throughout the day to fetch more. But since we installed a rain tank on school grounds, no one has to worry about supplying water anymore.

12-year-old Gift, who we spoke to when we last visited Kitagwa, remembers well what life at the school was like then.

"Before the project's completion, getting water was very hard because the available plastic rainwater harvesting tank then could not sustain the school population even for a month during the dry spell," Gift said. "[This] could render us going for water outside the school compound to supplement it. It was very tiresome to go for water because the stream is quite a distance from the school."

Since the new rain tank has been installed, things have been very different.

"Getting water now in the school is very easy because the tank can hold enough water that could serve [the] school population for a lengthy period of time," Gift said. "Since we are accessible to water from within the school compound, we get plenty of time which we are utilizing for our studies."

Having water available anytime she needs it has freed Gift's mind so she can concentrate on the things that matter.

"For me, after going for water outside the school compound before, on arrival from the stream, I used to be totally exhausted, and I could lack concentration in class because of fatigue," Gift said. "But now, the water point [has] eliminated those challenges completely."

Gift at the rain tank with teacher Luke Otambo.