Project Status



Project Type:  Protected Spring

Regional Program: Western Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 230 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Jul 2021

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 01/11/2024

Project Features


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In the Lukala West Community, people wake up around 5:00 am and the first thing that rings in their mind is that they have to fetch water before sunrise and before it is contaminated. Mostly women and children representing the 230 people who depend on Angatia Spring in Lukala West then head out to fetch water before doing anything else.

At the spring, accessing the water is a major challenge. The environment around this water point is not clean, and it is surrounded by bushes and reeds. The waterpoint is located on a steep slope, which makes it hard for community members to enter and leave the spring, especially during the rainy season when the path becomes slick with mud. Falls and their related injuries are not unheard of from trying to leave the spring when the ground is wet.

To aid in fetching water, community members created a makeshift discharge pipe using a plastic bottle with an open top lodged into a wall of mud they built. The water is then forced to flow through the bottle. But a lot of water seeps up through the ground around the bottle, reducing the current output. And to reach the pipe, people must balance among rocks and the pool of water always below the mud wall, risking slipping off the rocks if they use them or tripping in the mud if they don't.

The tricky access point slows people down as they fill their jerrycans, leading to long queues at the spring that waste a lot of time. Hence the early and late hours women try to fetch water. Yet they always seem to be waiting for someone ahead of them, even when they come back to the spring as late as 6:30 pm for the water they need for evening cooking, chores, and bathing.

"I am so scared whenever I go to the spring that I will fall down and hurt myself. I also waste alot of time at the spring because of the queue, and when I go back home, I have quarrels with my parents for taking so long," said primary school aged Brenda.

Angatia Spring's water is highly contaminated with animal waste, soil, and farm chemicals. Community members reported adverse health consequences after drinking this spring water including typhoid, diarrhea, and vomiting. People also noted the high rate of malaria among families who depend on this spring, which serves as an excellent breeding ground for the mosquitoes that carry the disease.

"We as a family are affected by the water from this water point. We are always seeking medication in order to treat typhoid, which is expensive. My business is affected and as a family, we are suffering a financial crisis," said Violet Ekeri, a 38-year-old businessperson and mother in Lukala West.

For those businesses that depend on water, like Violet's, Angatia Spring hurts them professionally as well in other respects. Due to poverty levels in the community, the business owners cannot afford to purchase bottled water from shops. This forces them to use the spring water or other questionable sources, which are not safe for drinking and cooking. The resulting poor-quality food, drinks, and other products made with the water lose customers. Some people avoid businesses known to use the dirty spring water altogether.

What We Can Do:

Spring Protection

Protecting the spring will help provide access to cleaner and safer water and reduce the time people have to spend to fetch it. 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 a task predominantly carried out by women and young girls. Protecting the spring and offering training and support will, therefore, help empower the female members of the community by freeing up more of their time and energy to engage and invest in income-generating activities and their education.

Training on Health, Hygiene, COVID-19, and More

To hold trainings during the pandemic, we work closely with both community leaders and the local government to approve small groups to attend training. We ask community leaders to invite a select yet representative group of people to attend training who will then act as ambassadors to the rest of the community to share what they learn. We also communicate our expectations of physical distancing and wearing masks for all who choose to attend.

The training will focus on improved hygiene, health, and sanitation habits in this community. We will also have a dedicated session on COVID-19 symptoms, transmission routes, and prevention best practices.

With the community’s input, we will identify key leverage points where they can alter their practices at the personal, household, and community levels to affect change. This training will help to ensure participants have the knowledge they need about healthy practices and their importance to make the most of their water point as soon as water is flowing.

Our team of facilitators will use a variety of methods to train community members. Some of these methods include participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation, asset-based community development, group discussions, handouts, and demonstrations at the spring.

One of the most important issues 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 is consumed. We and the community strongly believe that all of these components will work together to improve living standards here, which will help to unlock the potential for these community members to live better, healthier lives.

We will then conduct a small series of follow-up trainings before transitioning to our regularly scheduled support visits throughout the year.

Training will result in the formation of a water user committee, elected by their peers, that will oversee the operations and maintenance of the spring. The committee 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 channels. The fence will keep out destructive animals and unwanted waste, and the drainage will keep the area’s mosquito population at a minimum.

 

Project Updates


July, 2021: Angatia Spring Project Complete!

Lukala West Community now has access to clean water! We transformed Angatia Spring into a flowing source of water, thanks to your donation. Our team protected the spring and trained the community on improved sanitation and hygiene practices, including COVID-19 prevention.

"My life will change because my health condition is going to improve, and I will not spend money on medication. My plans and goals are that my farming activities will improve because I have enough water even during the dry season. I am not worried, and after selling the crops, will get a lot of money," said Hudson Charles, a local businessman.

Children were just as excited as the adults about the new water point.

"My life is going to improve because I will not suffer from water-borne diseases. At school, there will be no absenteeism by me, and my performance is going to improve," said 11-year-old Tina.

Preparing for Spring Protection

Community members worked together to source and carried all locally available construction materials to the spring. These included bricks, sand, stones, and fencing poles. Some people also chiseled away at large stones to break them down into the gravel. Because people have to carry most items by hand, the materials collection process can take anywhere from a few weeks to months.

When everything was prepared, we sent a lorry to the community to deliver the rest of the construction materials, including the cement, plastic tarps, and hardware. Then, our artisan and field officers deployed to the spring to begin work. Individual households provided meals throughout each day to sustain the work team.

From Open Source to Protected Spring: A Step-by-Step Process

At last, it was time to dig in at the spring! Women and men lent their strength to the artisan each day to help with the manual labor. First, we cleared and excavated the spring area. Next, we dug a drainage channel below the spring and several surface runoff diversion channels above and around the spring. These help to divert environmental contaminants carried by the rains away from the spring.

To ensure community members could still fetch water throughout the construction process, we also dug temporary diversion channels from the spring’s eye around the construction site. This allowed water to flow without severely disrupting community members’ water needs or the construction work.

Excavation created space for setting the spring’s foundation made of thick plastic tarp, wire mesh, concrete, and waterproof cement. After setting the base, we started brickwork to build the headwall, wing walls, and stairs.

Next, we began one of the most crucial spring protection steps to ensure a fully functional water point: setting the discharge pipe. The discharge pipe has to be low enough in the headwall so that the water level inside never rises above the spring’s eye, yet high enough to leave eighteen to twenty inches between the pipe and the spring floor. This allows room for the average jerrycan (a 20-liter container) to sit beneath the pipe without making contact.

If we place the discharge pipe too high above the spring’s eye, too much backpressure could force the flow to emerge elsewhere. Too low, and community members would not be able to access the water easily. We embedded the pipe using clay (or mortar when the clay is in short supply) and placed it slightly incline to ensure water flows in the right direction.

In coordination with brickwork, we pitched medium to large stones on both sides of the spring’s drainage channel. We then cemented and plastered each stone group into place, forming the rub walls. These help discourage people and animals from standing in that area, which could cause soil erosion and thus a clogged drainage area.

We turned to cementing and plastering both sides of the headwall and wing walls with brickwork and stone pitching completed. These finishing layers reinforce the brickwork and prevent water in the reservoir from seeping through the walls. In turn, enough pressure builds in the reservoir box to push water out through the discharge pipe.

As the headwall and wing walls were curing, we cemented and plastered the stairs and installed four tiles beneath the discharge pipe. The tiles protect the concrete from the falling water’s erosive force while beautifying the spring and facilitating easy cleaning of the spring floor.

We transitioned to the final stages of construction with the tiles in place - backfilling the reservoir box. First, we cleared the collection box of any debris that may have fallen in since its construction, such as dead leaves or other items. Then we redirected the temporary diversion channels back into the reservoir box, channeling water into this area for the first time. We closed off all of the other exits to start forcing the water through the discharge pipe only.

With much help from the community, we filled up the reservoir area with the clean and large stones they gathered, arranging them in layers like a well-fitting puzzle. We covered the stones with a thick plastic tarp to minimize potential contamination sources from aboveground, followed by a layer of soil. We piled enough soil on top to create a slight mound to compensate for the backfill’s future settlement.

Community members transplanted grass onto the backfilled soil to help prevent erosion. Finally, the collection area was fenced to discourage any person or animal from walking on it since compaction can lead to disturbances in the backfill layers and potentially compromise water quality.

The entire construction process took about two weeks of work and patience to allow the cement and plaster to finish curing. As soon as it was ready, people got the okay from our field officers to fetch water. We officially handed over the spring directly following training to mark the community's ownership of the water point. Happiness, thanksgiving, and appreciation were the order of the day flowing in all directions.

Training on Health, Hygiene, COVID-19, and More

Due to the ongoing challenges and restrictions amidst the pandemic, we worked with local leaders and the national Ministry of Health to gain approval for a small group training about health, hygiene, and COVID-19 prevention.

Together with the community, we found their preferred date for training while considering other community calendar events, such as the agricultural season and social events. We requested a representative group of community members to attend training to relay the information learned to the rest of their family and friends.

When the day arrived, facilitators Mary Afandi and Rose Serete deployed to the site to lead the event. Twenty-one people attended the training, including village health volunteers, community-based leaders, and local government officials. We held the training at the home of the Village Elder, under a tree.

Perhaps the most crucial topic of the day was our session on COVID-19 prevention and control. Due to the rampant spread of misinformation about COVID-19, we dedicated time to a question and answer session to help debunk rumors about the virus and provide extra information where needed.

We covered several other topics, including community participation in the project; leadership and governance; personal and environmental hygiene; water handling and treatment; operation and maintenance of the spring; dental hygiene; the ten steps of handwashing, and how to make and use a tippy tap and leaky tin. In addition, we held an election for the newly formed water user committee leaders during the leadership and governance session.

We also brainstormed income-generating activities that can be used to start a community savings account for any future minor repairs to the spring and a cooperative lending group to enable members to develop small businesses.

"The training was valuable to me because I have learned things that I didn't know. I am going to practice at home and make sure that other community members who didn't attend the training can learn from me," said Susy Benard.

"The training was timely because with this pandemic, we have learned a lot, and if we put it into practice, it will help us fight this pandemic. The most helpful part was how to put on a mask when to change it and the disposal of masks," said Judith Ngome, chairperson of the water committee.

When an issue arises concerning the water project, the water user committee is equipped with the necessary skills to rectify the problem and ensure the water point works appropriately. However, if the issue is beyond their capabilities, they can contact our field officers to assist them. Also, we will continue to offer them unmatchable support as a part of our ongoing monitoring and maintenance program.

Thank you for making all of this possible!




June, 2021: Angatia Spring Project Underway!

Dirty water from Angatia Spring is making people in Lukala West, Kenya sick. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install a clean water point and much more.

Get to know this 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 news of success!




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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!


A Year Later: More time to interact with friends!

August, 2022

A year ago, your generous donation helped Lukala West Community in Kenya access clean water – creating a life-changing moment for Sharon. Thank you!

Keeping The Water Promise

There's an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water in Lukala Community 3.

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Lukala Community 3 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!

Last year, before Angatia Spring was protected in Lukala West, it was challenging for seventeen-year-old Sharon E. to collect water and have time for anything else.

"During [the] rainy seasons, it was very hard to get clean water. Most of the time, our water was dirty, and we were forced to go far away looking for water where the springs were protected," said Sharon.

But since the spring's protection, things have been different.

"Everything has been made easy. You only need to place your container under the pipe, and water goes in. Very little time is spent at the water point," shared Sharon.

And best of all, Sharon now has time to do other fun things like her peers. "Now that very little time is spent at the spring, I have time to go and interact with friends and learn from them," Sharon concluded.

Sharon at the spring.


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 Lukala Community 3 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 Lukala Community 3 – 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.


Contributors

Solenis
2 individual donor(s)