Ingavira Community, Laban Mwanzo Spring

The people of Ingavira Community wake up very early in the morning to work on their farms, while the children prepare for school. The families support themselves by growing maize, sugarcane, groundnuts, bananas, and yams. Many also raise dairy cattle or tend to fish ponds. Through all of these endeavors, they are unique in that they can afford the school fees for their children.

Water

Laban Mwanzo Spring is a main water source for hundred living in this area. This water is open at ground level, completely unprotected from contaminants. The quality is especially poor after it rains, when rainwater washes dirt, farming chemicals, and feces into the water.

Community members even have to drink this water. Most say they've suffered from waterborne diseases; diarrhea and stomachaches are normal day to day occurrences.

Mr. Laban Mwanzo owns the land the spring flows through.

"Protecting the spring will solve our water problems. Moreover, the sanitation facilities and health promotion campaign through trainings will enable, enlighten, and build the capacity of the community to take matters related to health as a priority," he said.

Sanitation

The situation is even worse because over half of families in this area don't have their own latrine. They're not disposing of waste properly, which further contaminates the surrounding community and its drinking water. There are no hand-washing stations to prevent the spread of germs through contact, either.

Here's what we're going 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 the handling, storage, and treatment of water. Having a clean water source will be extremely helpful, but it is useless if water gets contaminated by the time it’s consumed. The building and usage of new latrines and hand-washing stations will also be a big topic.

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 (formatted and edited for readability) thanks to the hard work of our friends in Kenya.

Project Updates

May, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Ingavira Community, Laban Mwanzo Spring

Our teams are working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us in our fight against the virus while maintaining access to clean, reliable water.

Trainer Christine Masinde leads the session at the spring

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 Ingavira, Kenya.

We trained more than 14 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.

Handwashing demonstration

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.

Handwashing demonstration

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.

Homemade face mask tutorial

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.

Prevention reminders chart installed near the spring

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.

Observing social distancing

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.

All eyes on the trainer who provided informational pamphlets on COVID-19

Water access, sanitation, and hygiene are at the crux of disease prevention. You can directly support our work on the frontlines of COVID-19 prevention in all of the communities we serve while maintaining their access to safe, clean, and reliable water.

September, 2019: Giving Update: Ingavira Community, Laban Mwanzo Spring

A year ago, your generous donation helped Ingavira Community in Kenya access clean water.

There’s an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water at Laban Mwanzo Spring in Ingavira. Month after month, their giving supports ongoing sustainability programs that help this community maintain access to safe, reliable water. Read more…

July, 2018: Ingavira Community Has Clean Water!

Ingavira Community now has clean water! Laban Mwanzo 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 done on sanitation and hygiene.

New Knowledge

Mr. Laban Mwanzo, the owner of the land where the spring is located, was our contact person as we planned for hygiene and sanitation training in Ingavira. He mobilized the local people to attend the training by going door to door to explain its importance. The participants for the training were drawn from the area in which the spring is located.

The training attendees who braved the rain

On the day that the training was conducted, the weather condition was unfavorable. It rained the previous night until mid-morning, which affected the attendance. The participants were few, and some even came late for the training.

We covered several topics including leadership and governance; operation and maintenance of the spring; healthcare; family planning; immunizations; the spread of disease and prevention. We also covered water treatment methods, personal care like handwashing, environmental hygiene, hygiene promotion, and many other things.

The women participants were the most active. They asked many questions to get more information on water and sanitation. The demonstration session was most interesting because it allowed the participants to actively participate.

Learning safe care of the spring

The participants were so excited about the spring protection and were particularly curious when learning about pollution. They wanted to learn about every potential roadblock in getting clean water from their new spring protection, learning how they could keep the clean water flowing for generations to come.

Sanitation Platforms

All five sanitation platforms have been installed. These five families are happy about this milestone of having a private latrine of their own and are optimistic that people will no longer leave waste outdoors. We are continuing to encourage families to finish building walls and roofs over their new latrine floors.

Spring Protection

Community members provided all 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, too.

Men and women lent their strength to the artisan to help him with manual labor. The spring was protected during the heavy rain season in the area. The rains disrupted the construction works. For instance, during construction, part of the embankment washed away. The work had to be redone thus extending the overall construction period.

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 headwall to direct the water from the reservoir to the drawing area.

As the wing walls and headwall were curing, the stairs were set and ceramic tiles were fixed directly below the discharge pipe. This protects the concrete from 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.

The source area was filled up with clean stones and sand and covered with a polyethylene membrane to eliminate any potential sources of contamination. It took about two weeks of patience for the concrete to dry.

"Before the spring was protected, the community used to draw water by immersing their respective containers in the open unprotected spring. However, after the spring was protected and the training conducted the community members place their respective containers under the pipe for the water to fill, after which the carry the water to their respective homes," Mrs. Ruth Shiundu, who resides near the spring, explained.

April, 2018: Ingavira Community Project Underway

Dirty water from Laban Mwanzo Spring is making people in Ingavira Community sick. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install a clean water point and much more.

Get to know your community through the narrative and pictures we’ve posted, and read about this water, sanitation and hygiene project. We look forward to reaching out with more good news!