The Water Project’s WaSH program in Western Kenya aims to access, protect, filter, and purify the abundant waters that are available through two seasonal rains, prevalent springs, high water tables, and deep aquifers in the region. Explore water projects in communities, schools, and churches in Western Kenya such as protected springs, rainwater catchment systems, and water wells. This program emphasizes the power of strategic geographical saturation of projects, effective hygiene and sanitation training, and relational networking between NGOs, health workers, local politicians, and educators.
Springs are water sources that come from deep underground, where the water is filtered through natural layers until it is clean enough to drink. Once the water pushes through the surface of the Earth, however, outside elements like waste and runoff can contaminate the water quickly. We protect spring sources from contamination with a simple waterproof cement structure surrounding layers of clay, stone, and soil. This construction channels the spring’s water through a discharge pipe, making water collection easier, faster, and cleaner. Each spring protection also includes a chlorine dispenser at the waterpoint so community members can be assured that the water they are drinking is entirely safe. Learn more here!
Rehabilitation Project
Rehabilitation is not just fixing a pump - it’s total community re-engagement.
There’s only one thing we can think of that might be worse than not having safe water: having safe water, and then losing it because a project fell into disrepair.
Rehabilitation often proves to be a big challenge, as many wells have sit idle for years and there is typically little information about the specifics of the well. A borehole and dug well rehabilitation involves quite a bit of discovery. First, our teams work to discover as much as they can about the initial project. What materials were used? Was the borehole/hand-dug well properly constructed? Many of these questions can only be answered by diving in, and doing “the work” which makes up a rehabilitation.
Once our teams have found the problem, they find the solution. Then, they reconstruct the well and install a hand pump.
Engagement and training with communities takes into account rehabilitation was needed and alters the program to suit the needs of the community. After all - engaging with this community in the same way which led to the initial, failed project will not bring new results. Our teams work to understand the social and support reasons leading to initial failure, and make those areas a focus of our ongoing engagement with communities.
Local Leadership
Water projects don’t last long without the help of local leaders. They’re the ones who explain the situation on the ground to us (and our donors!) while also outlining our goals and intentions for the community members.
The Water Project identifies, supports, and partners with local organizations that share our vision of reliable, verifiable, and clean water. Together, we build lasting local solutions and undertake ongoing monitoring and resolution to ensure our solutions are still working years into the future.
Community Engagement
We engage the communities we work with at every step of a water project.
These interactions are rooted in relationship-building. We involve the community in implementation, set expectations for water point management, prepare community members for ongoing costs, and more. All of this happens before a water project is installed.
The people receiving a water project get a leading seat at the table. Every water project we implement requires negotiations with several interested parties. During this step and every other, we continuously try to embody our favorite ideals: reliability, relationship, and trust.
Sanitation Platform (SanPlat)
Easily made latrine slabs encourage household bathroom construction.
Proper hygiene and sanitation facilities go hand-in-hand with access to clean, reliable water.
A SanPlat is most literally the slab one would squat over when utilizing the bathroom.
The community chooses 5 households to receive SanPlats made on site under our training and guidance. The goal: seeing the need for safe latrines throughout their community, each household will be inspired to build their own.
Hygiene and Sanitation Training
For many communities, water is just the beginning. Living without water deprioritizes things that deplete water rations, like bathing, cleaning, and even handwashing. Also, in some cases, community members who couldn’t afford to go to school never learned topics usually covered in health classes. A steady water supply on its own won’t solve these issues, which is why we train the people in every community, school, and health center we provide with a water project.
Although we tailor the subjects we cover in each training to each region and community, there are some staples we always touch on: water handling and storage; personal and environmental hygiene; disease transmission; how to form and maintain a water user committee; and the operation/maintenance of the community’s new water project.
With each training, our goal is to empower communities to take back their personal health so growth and development can begin.
Monitoring and Resolution
Sub-Saharan Africa is littered with broken and abandoned wells installed by well-meaning people.
We love celebrating when a project is complete and a community has access to clean, safe water. However, reliability is the true measure of our impact.
Water can only transform lives if it’s always there. Water-fetchers need to know that when they visit one of our water points, there will always be water. Sometimes, it only takes one sip of dirty water to make someone sick, even if they’d been drinking clean water for months beforehand.
This is why we measure our water projects’ downtime in hours, not days or weeks. Each hour is critical to someone’s life, and each hour someone has to wait for clean water is another opportunity to go back to the rivers, swamps, and scoop holes they resorted to before our water project was installed. Our past water projects are just as important as what we tackle in the future.
The Water Project monitors all of our water projects to make sure water service continues. To learn more about how you can help with ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and resolution, read about The Water Promise: a group of amazing, world-changing monthly donors who understand the power of keeping water flowing long after the installation is done.
Project Timeline FAQ
Project Status
We’re working hard to make sure your gifts result in a lasting water project for the community it serves. Our engagement with a community begins many months before construction and lasts years after construction. The timeline here is focused on the physical construction of the water project. There is also training and engagement work that has already started.
Water project construction in the developing world is hard work. A lot of things can and do cause delays - which are normal. We attempt to make our best judgment of when construction will be complete, but the circumstances surrounding actual "in the field" conditions are far from our control.
Weather, supply availability, government paperwork, and progress of community involvement are just a few of the variables that can delay (and sometimes speed up) a project's completion.
We will always tell you if anything changes. And, if you get a notice like this – it’s actually further proof your gifts are being carefully used towards a water project that lasts.
Click icons to learn about each feature.
Report Submitted by Jacklyne Chelagat, Impact Communication Officer
Jacklyne loves seeing lives transformed by clean water. She is currently pursuing her degree in development studies and looks forward to how that will add even more value to her relationships with communities.
Jacklyne has been a Impact Communication Officer since 2014, with WeWaSaFo, The Water Project's trusted partner in our Western Kenya WaSH Program.
It's 5:30am in the morning, and Peris Amakube, a mother of 5, is already up. To help wake herself up, she washes her face with cool water. As the light penetrates through the banana leaves near her home, she weaves through the maize plantations to go fetch water at the spring. The women have to wake up early, for this spring serves many households - and as dawn approaches, more and more women juggle their empty containers as they walk to the spring. The idea here is first come, first served, and this is why Peris comes so early in the morning.
When back home, she makes a quick breakfast for her family and prepares the young ones to run to school. The children attend ADC Bukhunyilu Primary school, just 500 meters away. She does her household chores and after that proceeds to the farm. At around noon she is back home to prepare lunch for her family. As the children come for lunch, they rush to the spring to bring a container of water for washing the lunch utensils. In the evening after classes, they run to the spring again and the same thing is repeated day in and day out.
The people in this community are farmers who have planted maize, bananas and beans for household use.
Water
Hundreds rely on Solomon Wangula Spring's (named that way because of the nearby landowner) water for their drinking, cooking, and cleaning. As more people fetch water throughout the day, both the quality and quantity greatly decreases. Community members even have to step into the water itself while they fill their containers.
The open water source is subjected to tons of contaminants, including human and animal waste. The quality is even worse in the rainy season, when the heavy rains wash dirt and waste straight into the water.
Due to a lack of safe drinking water, people report that diarrhea and infections are the norm - especially for young children.
Peris Amakube told us, "I wasted 3,500 shillings treating typhoid in my family this year."
Sanitation
Less than half of households have a pit latrine. Those we visited were in such a poor state - one had even recently collapsed due to heavy rains. In the meantime, that family was sharing a latrine with their neighbor. Since so few people have their own facilities, open defecation is common. There are even less helpful tools like dish racks and clotheslines.
We were pleasantly surprised to find one latrine that had a "leaky tin" hand-washing station set up outside. It's important that every household see the need for hand-washing, and we look forward to addressing this in training.
Here's what we plan to do about it:
Training
Community members will attend hygiene and sanitation training for at least two days. This training will ensure participants have the knowledge they need about healthy practices and their importance. The facilitator plans to use PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation), CLTS (Community-Led Total Sanitation), ABCD (Asset-Based Community Development), group discussions, handouts, and demonstrations at the spring. One of the most important topics we plan to cover is open defecation and its dangers, as well as having and using a pit latrine.
Training will also result in the formation of a committee that will oversee operations and maintenance at the spring. They will enforce proper behavior around the spring and delegate tasks that will help preserve the site, such as building a fence and digging proper drainage. The fence will keep out destructive animals, and the drainage will keep the area’s mosquito population at a minimum.
Sanitation Platforms
On the final day of training, participants will select five families that should benefit from new latrine floors.
Training will also inform the community and selected families on what they need to contribute to make this project a success. They must mobilize locally available materials, such as bricks, clean sand, hardcore, and ballast. The five families chosen for sanitation platforms must prepare by sinking a pit for the sanitation platforms to be placed over. All community members must work together to make sure that accommodations and food are always provided for the work teams.
Spring Protection
Protecting the spring will ensure that the water is safe, adequate and secure. Construction will keep surface runoff and other contaminants out of the water. With the community’s high involvement in the process, there should be a good sense of responsibility and ownership for the new clean water source.
Fetching water is predominantly a female role, done by both women and young girls. Protecting the spring and offering training and support will therefore help empower the female members of the community by giving them more time and efforts to engage and invest in income-generating activities.
This project is a part of our shared program with Western Water And Sanitation Forum (WEWASAFO). Our team is pleased to provide the reports for this project (edited for readability) thanks to the hard work of our friends in Kenya.
Project Updates
November, 2020: Through Their Eyes: COVID-19 Chronicles with Kamins Muteshi
This post is part of a new series by The Water Project meant to highlight the perspectives and experiences of the people we serve and how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting them. We invite you to read more of their stories here.
Our team recently visited Bukhunyilu to conduct a COVID-19 prevention training (read more about it below!) and monitor their water point, Solomon Wangula Spring. Shortly after, we returned to check in on the community, offer a COVID-19 refresher training, and ask how the pandemic is affecting their lives.
It was during this most recent visit that Kamins Muteshi shared his story of how the coronavirus is impacting his life and his community. Kamins is a 24-year-old university student who, like so many others his age across the country, has been waiting out Kenya's national school closures at home with his family.
Kamins Muteshi
Just as most governments around the world, the Kenyan government continues to set and adjust restrictions both nationally and regionally to help control the spread of the virus. While the government recently re-admitted certain levels of students to return to school, Kamins' class was not one of them, and by rule, he will have to repeat his entire academic year come January before he is allowed to graduate.
Field Officer Jacklyne Chelagat met Kamins outside his family's home to conduct the interview. Both Jacky and Kamins observed physical distancing and other precautions throughout the visit to ensure their health and safety. The following is Kamins' story, in his own words.
What is one thing that has changed in your community since the completion of the water project?
"We are now accessing clean and safe water, and our health is good. We take very minimal time to fetch water and this has increased time for other development activities to be conducted efficiently."
Kamins fetching water from Solomon Wangula Spring
How has having a clean water point helped you through the pandemic so far?
"It has helped us to drink, feed animals, wash our hands frequently, and promote high standards of hygiene and sanitation."
Kamins washing his hands with soap and clean water from the spring using a homemade tippy tap handwashing station
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Kenya, has fetching water changed for you because of restrictions, new rules, or your concerns about the virus?
"Fetching water in our spring has really changed as we no longer congest at the spring. Every member is advised to go in shifts and observe social distance while putting on masks."
Community members observe physical distancing and wear masks while fetching water at Solomon Wangula Spring
How has COVID-19 impacted your family?
"I was to finish my bachelor's degree early this year but due to the closure of learning institutions, it has created a setback in my studies which I was not prepared for. Being idle at home is a great challenge, especially without enough resources to meet your personal needs."
Kamins with family outside their home
What other challenges are you experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
"I am worried as the little funds that were set aside for my school fees have already been used to cater to our daily needs. It's both creating economic and emotional challenges on me."
What hygiene and sanitation steps have you and your community taken to stop the spread of the virus?
"Every community member has strived to wash their hands frequently and wear masks whenever they are in gatherings or going to fetch water."
Kamins weatring his mask
What restriction were you most excited to see lifted already?
"I am a worshipper in church, so opening churches was a wise thought. Being a student, I am happy to go back to school and finish my studies despite not having enough school fees."
What restriction are you still looking forward to being lifted?
"Currently, most of the restrictions are lifted and we are happy though we are advised to continue observing the regulations that are in place."
Watering the family's cow with water from the spring
When asked where he receives information about COVID-19, Kamins listed the radio, television, and our team's sensitization training.
What has been the most valuable part of the COVID-19 sensitization training you received from our team?
"I was excited to acquire information on how to make tippy taps as it eases the handwashing process. Mask making was innovative enough that it gade every member access to it, and finally the entire sensitization was important as it created enough awareness on COVID-19."
July, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Bukhunyilu Community, Solomon Wangula Spring
Trainer Jacky Chelagat builds a new tippy tap handwashing station at training
We are carrying out awareness and prevention trainings on the virus in every community we serve. Very often, our teams are the first (and only) to bring news and information of the virus to rural communities like Bukhunyilu, Kenya.
We trained more than 21 people on the symptoms, transmission routes, and prevention of COVID-19. Due to public gathering concerns, we worked with trusted community leaders to gather a select group of community members who would then relay the information learned to the rest of their family and friends.
Trainer Janet Kayi leads the handwashing session
We covered essential hygiene lessons:
- Demonstrations on how to build a simple handwashing station
- Proper handwashing technique
- The importance of using soap and clean water for handwashing
- Cleaning and disinfecting commonly touched surfaces including at the water point.
Trainer Rose also demonstrates handwashing
We covered COVID-19-specific guidance in line with national and international standards:
- Information on the symptoms and transmission routes of COVID-19
- What social distancing is and how to practice it
- How to cough into an elbow
- Alternative ways to greet people without handshakes, fist bumps, etc.
- How to make and properly wear a facemask.
Everyone practices the 10 steps of handwashing
During training, we installed a new handwashing station with soap near the community’s water point, along with a sign with reminders of what we covered.
The new tippy tap handwashing station and prevention reminders chart installed during training
Due to the rampant spread of misinformation about COVID-19, we also dedicated time to a question and answer session to help debunk rumors about the disease and provide extra information where needed.
Mask sewing tutorial
We continue to stay in touch with this community as the pandemic progresses. We want to ensure their water point remains functional and their community stays informed about the virus.
September, 2019: Giving Update: Bukhunyilu Community, Solomon Wangula Spring
A year ago, your generous donation helped Bukhunyilu Community in Kenya access clean water.
There’s an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water at Solomon Wangula Spring in Bukhunyilu. Month after month, their giving supports ongoing sustainability programs that help this community maintain access to safe, reliable water. Read more…
May, 2018: Bukhunyilu Community Project Complete
Bukhunyilu Community now has clean water! Solomon Wangula Spring has been transformed into a flowing source of clean water thanks to your donation. The spring is protected from contamination, five sanitation platforms have been provided for the community, and training has been given in sanitation and hygiene.
New Knowledge
After constructing a rainwater catchment tank at ADC Bukhunyilu Primary School, the neighborhood villages were really amazed with the great work. They asked for a spring protection project because they've seen these same students fetch water at their own spring. Because of all this happening, community members were excited to come to the training and hear what we had to say.
Participants arrived early at the venue for the two-day training ready to learn and put into practice all they were going to be taught. Attendance was relatively impressive. We had 19 participants who were really eager to learn, despite having their own tight schedules. The participants asked questions when they couldn't understand and insisted on knowing even more about water treatment. They all promised to be great ambassadors of hygiene and sanitation, sharing all the information with their own families and neighbors.
The field officer clearly communicated the areas of needed improvement for Bukhunyilu, which included the following topics and more:
– Handwashing and personal hygiene
– Handling water and food hygienically
– Safe waste disposal
– Water treatment
Construction at the spring had just finished, and so the entire group walked over there for hands-on demonstrations. They learned how to properly use, manage, and maintain Solomon Wangula Spring. More importantly, they learned how to fetch, handle, and store clean water so as to ensure it’s still clean at the time of consumption.
Sanitation Platforms
All five sanitation platforms were installed. These five families are happy about this milestone of having a private latrine all their own, and are optimistic that there will be much less open defecation. We are continuing to encourage families to finish building walls and roofs over their new latrine floors.
Spring Protection
Community members provided all the required locally available construction materials, e.g bricks, wheelbarrows of clean sand, wheelbarrows of ballast, fencing poles and gravel. Accommodations and meals were provided for the artisan, and we asked a few people to volunteer their time and strength to help the artisan with manual labor.
The spring area was excavated to create space for setting the foundation of polyethylene, wire mesh and concrete. After the base had been set, both wing walls and the headwall were set in place using brickwork. The discharge pipe was fixed low in place through the head wall to direct the water from the reservoir to the drawing area.
As the wing walls and headwall were curing, the stairs were set and the tiles were fixed directly below the discharge pipe. This reduces the erosive force of the falling water and beautifies the spring. The process of plastering the headwall and wing walls on both sides reinforces the brickwork and prevents water from the reservoir from seeping through the walls and allows pressure to build in the collection box to push water up through the discharge pipe.
Cleaning and plastering the base of the spring.
The source area was filled up with clean gravel and covered with a polyethylene membrane to eliminate any potential sources of contamination.
Since the concrete around the spring needed time to dry, we set a day to meet community members there and celebrate. This wasn't only a chance to celebrate the concrete drying, but clean water, too!
People brought their containers to fetch clean water for the first time.
"May God guide you to continue building more sanitation facilities and protecting springs in community and schools in Kenya," Farmer Isaac Achesa said.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
February, 2018: Bukhunyilu Community Project Underway
Bukhunyilu Community will soon have a clean, safe source of water thanks to your donation. Community members have been drinking contaminated water from Wangula Spring, and often suffer physical illnesses after doing so. Our partner conducted a survey of the area and deemed it necessary to protect the spring, build new sanitation platforms (safe, easy-to-clean concrete floors for latrines), and conduct sanitation and hygiene training. Thanks to your generosity, waterborne disease will no longer be a challenge for the families drinking the spring’s water. We look forward to sharing more details with you as they come! But for now, please take some time to check out the report containing community information, pictures, and maps.
Project Videos
Project Photos
Project Type
Springs are water sources that come from deep underground, where the water is filtered through natural layers until it is clean enough to drink. Once the water pushes through the surface of the Earth, however, outside elements like waste and runoff can contaminate the water quickly. We protect spring sources from contamination with a simple waterproof cement structure surrounding layers of clay, stone, and soil. This construction channels the spring’s water through a discharge pipe, making water collection easier, faster, and cleaner. Each spring protection also includes a chlorine dispenser at the waterpoint so community members can be assured that the water they are drinking is entirely safe. Learn more here!
Giving Update: Bukhunyilu Community, Solomon Wangula Spring
September, 2019
A year ago, your generous donation helped Bukhunyilu Community in Kenya access clean water – creating a life-changing moment for Sheila Wangula. Thank you!
Keeping The Water Promise
There's an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water in Bukhunyilu Community, Solomon Wangula Spring.
This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Bukhunyilu Community, Solomon Wangula Spring maintain access to safe, reliable water. Together, they keep The Water Promise.
We’re confident you'll love joining this world-changing group committed to sustainability!
Much has changed in Bukhunyilu Community since the protection of Solomon Wangula Spring last year.
Most noticeably, it is now easier for community members here to fetch water through the spring's discharge pipe, as opposed to the period before the project where they were using a container to scoop water from the ground. This means less time spent filling containers, and less time waiting in line for your turn to fetch water. Not only that, but no scooping has meant no worries about disturbing the water and muddying it before the next person could fetch it.
The sanitation and hygiene training has also been impactful. Before there were some community members who did not have toilets but through the support of the project, they are able to afford to cover the provided sanitation slabs. These households have been able to improve their health status and we are continuing to encourage other households to do the same.
Alvin Achesa, one of the assigned caretakers of the spring, echoed the changes we saw in Bukhunyilu.
"The community is able to access clean and safe drinking water. It is easier to fetch water because one does not need to use containers as the protected springs have pipes."
Sheila Wangula with Marion Shihenze at the spring
One community member, Sheila Wangula, is a 13-year-old girl who is related to the Wangula family who owns the land the spring is on. "The water collected at the spring is clean and safe for drinking and also has helped us in household chores including cooking," she said. "The community members no longer carry sieves and jugs when going to fetch water."
Sheila, Marion, and Field Officer Rose Serete
Navigating through intense dry spells, performing preventative maintenance, conducting quality repairs when needed and continuing to assist community leaders to manage water points are all normal parts of keeping projects sustainable. The Water Promise community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Bukhunyilu Community, Solomon Wangula Spring maintain access to safe, reliable water.
We’d love for you to join this world-changing group committed to sustainability.
The most impactful way to continue your support of Bukhunyilu Community, Solomon Wangula Spring – and hundreds of other places just like this – is by joining our community of monthly givers.
Your monthly giving will help provide clean water, every month... keeping The Water Promise.
Rehabilitation Project
