Project Status



Project Type:  Dug Well and Hand Pump

Regional Program: Western Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 200 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Nov 2016

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 09/04/2024

Project Features


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Community Profile

This project is a part of our shared program with Safe Water and Sustainable Hygiene Initiative (SAWASHI). Our team is pleased to directly share the below report (edited for clarity, as needed).

Welcome to the Community

Shivagala Community is home to farmers who plant seasonal crops such as beans, maize, sorghum, and other vegetables. Some of the community members are employed by the nearby sugarcane factory known as Butali Sugar Company to cut sugarcane. Other men and women harvest sand at the local river to sell to local distributors. Most of the young people in are unemployed, staying home to watch the younger children.

Society has written the roles for each and every family member. Husbands are the bread winners who provide security, shelter, food and many other basic needs for their families. Wives carry out household chores such as taking care of children, cooking, fetching water and maintaining good hygiene and sanitation. Children help their parents do chores like collecting firewood, looking after livestock, and fetching water.

Water Situation

Shivagala Community has a hand-dug well that they excavated in 2001. The community members wanted to alleviate the burdens caused by water scarcity. Women were wasting a lot of time traveling long distances in search of water.

While the community had the resources to dig down to the water table, they were not able to finish the well with a pump. The water inside is instead accessed through a hatch; a bucket tied to a rope is lowered until a woman or child has enough water to fill their jerrycan. This process contaminates the well water. Since the well is not sealed with a pump, rainwater washes waste through the hatch.

When delivered back home, water is separated into different containers by use. Drinking water is stored in covered clay pots, which keep the water at a cooler temperature. Water for cleaning, bathing, and watering are either kept in the fetching containers or larger plastic barrels.

A common consequence of drinking this contaminated water is diarrhea, especially in children and elderly. Cases of typhoid have also been reported. Moreover, the hole covered by the hatch is wide enough for small children to fit through. It is dangerous for them to fetch water for their families. Assistant Chief Rose Kiteki said, "Currently, our nearby dispensary has a big percentage of cases of diarrhea and typhoid, in both young and old."

Sanitation Situation

A little over half of households in this area have a pit latrine. If a family does not have a latrine of their own, they often share with a neighbor. These latrines are made of mud walls and sackcloth doors.

There are no places to wash hands, and not many families even have helpful tools like dish racks or clotheslines. Garbage is disposed of in open fields that are far enough from the home.

Plans: Hygiene and Sanitation Training

Community members will be trained for two days on applicable hygiene and sanitation practices. The facilitator will use the PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Training) method to teach about topics like: Importance of Using Latrines, Good and Bad Hygiene Behavior, Water Treatment, Water Storage, Food Preparation and Storage, Disease Transmission Routes, Blocking the Spread of Disease, and last but not least, Hand-Washing!

Training will result in the formation of a water user committee which will oversee, manage, and maintain the rehabilitated well. Participants will be taught how to build a tippy tap, which is a hand-washing station made out of a jerrycan, rope, and sticks. The facilitator will also encourage every household to build new sanitation facilities like latrines, bathing rooms, dish racks, and clotheslines.

Plans: Hand-Washing Stations

Two hand-washing stations are scheduled for delivery by the time well rehabilitation is complete. Training participants will be taught the steps to effective hand-washing, and of the importance of using a cleaning agent such as soap or ash. Water user committee members will also check that there is water inside the containers on a daily basis.

Plans: Well Rehabilitation

Locals confirm that this well has never run out of water, even in the driest of seasons. At the time of our visit, we measured it to be 8.3 meters deep with a static water level of six meters. The inside is lined with bricks, and the top has a hatch made of steel that is a little over a half meter wide.

The rehabilitation process will start with resource mobilization. Locals will help us gather all of the materials we need for construction, such as sand, bricks, and water. We will mix that sand with concrete and use it to build a new well pad. The inside will be flushed, we will test pump, and then finish the well with a new AfriDev pump. A new well pad and a new pump will seal in the water, protecting it from outside contaminants. Water will come out, and nothing will go back in.

This project will end with a handing over ceremony. We will meet locals at the rehabilitated well and hand the project over to the water user committee. They will oversee and maintain the pump and hand-washing stations, while encouraging their neighbors to adopt the healthy practices they learned about during training. If there's ever a problem too big for them to solve, they will give us a call.

We are very grateful to the local leadership's role in this project. They applied, unified the community, and mobilized participants. We strongly believe that this project will empower the community, especially the women and children who are most responsible for fetching water.

Project Updates


December, 2017: A Year Later: Shivagala Community

A year ago, generous donors helped rehabilitate a well with Shivagala Community in Western Kenya. Because of these gifts and contributions from our monthly donors, partners can visit project sites throughout the year, strengthening relationships with communities and evaluating the actual water project. These consistent visits allow us to learn vital lessons and hear amazing stories – we’re excited to share this one from our partner, Paul Weringa, with you.




Project Photos


Project Type

Hand-dug wells have been an important source of water throughout human history! Now, we have so many different types of water sources, but hand-dug wells still have their place. Hand dug wells are not as deep as borehole wells, and work best in areas where there is a ready supply of water just under the surface of the ground, such as next to a mature sand dam. Our artisans dig down through the layers of the ground and then line the hole with bricks, stone, or concrete, which prevent contamination and collapse. Then, back up at surface level, we install a well platform and a hand pump so people can draw up the water easily.


A Year Later: Shivagala Community

December, 2017

Today, we are healthy and continue to enjoy the clean water from the well, and our children attend school without issues.

Keeping The Water Promise

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

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Shivagala Community 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!

A year ago, generous donors helped rehabilitate a well with Shivagala Community in Western Kenya. Because of these gifts and contributions from our monthly donors, partners can visit project sites throughout the year, strengthening relationships with communities and evaluating the actual water project. These consistent visits allow us to learn vital lessons and hear amazing stories – we’re excited to share this one from our partner, Paul Weringa with you.


Shivagala Community now has great relief from drinking dirty water. They used to draw their water up from an open with a bucket tied to rope. Since the well was rehabilitated with a new well pad and AfriDev pump, not only are people enjoying good health with clean water, but they're no longer suffering from back and chest pains as a result of lifting the heavy bucket over and over again.

Paul interviewing Rachael Muronji

Families are now healthy and able to do other activities in the home without having to deal with the issues that come from drinking dirty water. Women have enough time to care for their children, cook, and tend to their gardens.

Paul met with the water committee's treasurer, Rachael Moronji. She said, "Our children used to have diarrhea after drinking water from the open well. This took all of our little money away for medical bills. Today, we are healthy and continue to enjoy the clean water from the well, and our children attend school without issues." She said that there's even enough water for the community's livestock. "Our livestock are now healthy," she rejoiced. This has boosted their milk production, and thus income for the community.


12-year-old Auriela Shakava agreed, saying "going to school regularly is an achievement to me. This is made possible by the project which provides clean water, eliminating typhoid which caused me to miss school."


The only challenge here is that many people are still not willing to contribute fees for their well, which would be used for maintenance. They have the idea that water should be free, but the well is really providing a service that needs to be maintained to ensure sustainability. Our team continues to engage with them on this through our quarterly monitoring visits and other trainings.

The Water Project and our partners are committed to consistent monitoring of each water source. Our monitoring and evaluation program, made possible by monthly donors, allows us to visit communities up to 4 times a year. Read more about our program and how you can help.


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 Shivagala Community 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 Shivagala Community – 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

St. Mary Catholic Church Altar Rosary Society
Gethsemane Baptist Church
3 individual donor(s)