A Year Later: Lugango Community

A year ago, your generous donation enabled us to protect a natural spring for Lugango Community in Kenya. The contributions of incredible monthly donors and others giving directly to The Water Promise allow our local teams to visit project sites throughout the year, strengthening relationships with communities and evaluating the water project over time. These consistent visits allow us to learn vital lessons and hear amazing stories – and we’re excited to share this one from local team member Samuel Simidi with you.

The community is now able to regularly access water that is clean and safe. Before, their water was exposed to contaminants which risked their health on a daily basis.

We recently visited with the community to see what has changed over the past year. There has been a tremendous improvement in terms of sanitation and hygiene. During our visits to the various homes, we spotted at least one if not all sanitation facilities required in a healthy home, such as a dish racks and latrines. This indicates that the sanitation and hygiene training done in the village continues to have an impact.

We met 15-year-old Derick Maraha during our visit. He told us that he no longer has to fetch water every day of the week. Now that it is easier and faster to collect water from the protected spring's pipe, Derick only makes a few trips on the weekend to help his mother. Thanks to this discharge pipe, Derick and people living in the community no longer have to wait for a long time to fetch water.

Derick Maraha

Construction of the spring is only one step along the journey toward sustainable access to clean water. The Water Project is committed to consistent monitoring of each water source. Our monitoring and evaluation program, made possible by donors like you, allows us to maintain our relationships with communities by visiting up to 4 times each year to ensure that the water points are safe and reliable.

This is just one of the many ways that we monitor projects and communicate with you. Additionally, you can always check the functionality status and our project map to see how all of our water points are performing, based on our consistent monitoring data.

One project is just a drop in the bucket towards ending the global water crisis, but the ripple effects of this project are truly astounding. This spring in Lugango is changing many lives.

"We now collect clean, safe water faster and more efficiently compared to back then when our water was exposed to contaminants, making it difficult to collect clean water," Margaret Lihanda said to us.

"We no longer hear of infections related to waterborne diseases."

Margaret cleaning the spring

This is only possible because of the web of support and trust built between The Water Project, our local teams, the community, and you. We are excited to stay in touch with this community and support their journey with safe water.

Read more about The Water Promise and how you can help.