Project Status



Project Type:  Protected Spring

Regional Program: Western Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 315 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Jan 2017

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 10/04/2024

Project Features


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Community Profile

This project is a part of our shared program with Western Water and Sanitation Forum (WEWASAFO). Our team is pleased to directly share the below report (edited for clarity, as needed).

Welcome to the Community

It is early in the morning at about 5AM in Ebung'ayo Village when a young girl known as Nafuma gets up and puts on her school uniform. Before she leaves the house, her mother requests her to run to the nearby spring to fetch one jerrycan of water. She obediently picks up an empty jerrycan and runs to the spring. She manages to fill her jerrycan and carefully lifts it to balance on her head. She takes her first step and while trying to take her next step away from the spring, she slips and falls backwards. Her only uniform is now soaked. Time passes as she waits for the sun to dry her uniform. She quietly sits under a tree worried of what punishment she will be given for missing school.

This is just one of many cases in this village for girls, women and other children who slip and fall as they fetch water. Some of them are even harassed and insulted by young men who bring their cows to drink water at the same spring. The young men let their cows step into the water before the girls and women can fill their containers. They have to either wait until the water is clean or go back home with empty containers and return later.

Ebung'ayo Village is located in Kakamega County, Kenya. It is home to 315 people from 45 different households.

There are a lot of young men in this village who have a very low level of education. These men are looking for any way to earn an income, roaming around the village hoping someone will hire them for manual labor. Despite the high unemployment rate and lack of education here, people are friendly and hospitable.

Water Situation

The people of Ebung'ayo Village rely on Murambi Spring for water. It's close to all of the homesteads, and water doesn't cease to flow even during the driest seasons.

The community has placed a large stone at the side of the spring on which they balance to fetch water. Each person brings a small cup that they can dip in the spring to bail water and fill their water container, which is normally as large as they can carry. The water is brought home and used for drinking, cooking, bathing, and watering animals.

When home, water is separated into different containers by use. Drinking water is kept in covered pots either in the kitchen or living room. The rest of the water is dumped in larger plastic barrels and saved for cleaning and watering animals.

We know that Murambi Spring is contaminated because of the numerous reports of waterborne disease. Our visit to the spring confirmed this fact; the water is out in the open with no barriers to protect it from erosion, surface runoff, and animals. Some people don't even bother to balance on the rock, but step directly into the water as they fill their containers.

Sanitation Situation

Under half of the households in Ebung'ayo Village have a pit latrine. These are made of cracked mud walls and dirt floors. The same low number of people have bathing rooms for personal hygiene, hand-washing stations, dish racks, or clotheslines.

People here normally pick a spot in the back of their compound to throw garbage. This is separated into piles to burn and to compost. The compost will be used on the farm as a fertilizer.

Plans: Hygiene and Sanitation Training

Community members will attend hygiene and sanitation training for at least three days. This training will ensure participants are no longer ignorant 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.

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.

Plans: Sanitation Platforms

On the final day of training, participants will select five families that should benefit from new latrines.

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 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.

Plans: Spring Protection

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.

In addition, 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.

Project Updates


July, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Ebung'ayo Community, Murambi 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 Shigali builds a tippy tap handwashing station

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 Ebung'ayo, Kenya.

Handwashing using the tippy tap

We trained more than 9 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

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

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 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.

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.

The completed mask made at training

"After having this training, we will start washing our hands better than we did before and we will also make and wear face masks just the way you have advised us.fFeel free to come back again and again to give us more knowledge!" said the Village Head following training.

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.

Trainer Patience Njeri hands out 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.




December, 2017: A Year Later: Ebung’ayo Village

A year ago, generous donors helped build a spring protection and sanitation platforms with the community surrounding Murambi Spring 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, Catherine Chepkemoi, with you.




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!


A Year Later: Murambi Spring

November, 2017

“The biggest change is due to reduced water borne diseases, community members have channeled their resources towards serious farming.”

Keeping The Water Promise

There's an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water in Ebung'ayo Community, Murambi Spring.

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Ebung'ayo Community, Murambi 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!

A year ago, generous donors helped build a spring protection and sanitation platforms with the community surrounding Murambi Spring 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, Catherine Chepkemoi, with you.

Murambi Spring project has brought a great change in the community. Community members are now accessing clean, safe water for drinking as well as for general purposes and use. The rate of water borne and water related diseases has tremendously reduced. Much of their resources which they previously used while seeking medication have been saved. The money is now used for income generating projects like planting local vegetables which usually fetches high prices irrespective of the season thus more income for them. Household sanitation platforms have also awakened community members on the need of each homestead having a pit latrine. They have gone ahead and improvised containers just near their pit latrines for washing their hands after latrine visits as well.

Water User Committee member, Andrew Murambi shared what he has experienced since the spring was protected last year. “The biggest change is due to reduced water borne diseases, community members have channeled their resources towards serious farming. This is not only for subsistence but also pit for commercial as an agricultural business has emerged. We are so happy about this project.”

“I am now accessing safe clean water at any time I need it,” shared 5-year-old Joshua Matsakha. “I am happy drawing water from the pipe.”

Stepping at Murambi you could easily tell the changes that have been happening in this community since the project last year. The community members are very thankful for the safe clean water that are accessing now. Their environment looks neat, not only from farm plantation but also from flowers that they plant around their homestead. The community still needs improvement on how to store and handle their water on the way home after fetching and at home to ensure that water can't get contaminated. Besides that, we will conduct monitoring and evaluation for the spring so that it serves the intended purpose of community.

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 Ebung'ayo Community, Murambi 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 Ebung'ayo Community, Murambi 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.


Contributors

Swigert International School
Harrison High School
Sacajawea Middle School - 6th gr Student Council
2 individual donor(s)