Rehabilitation Project
This project is a part of our shared program with Bridge Water Project. Our team is pleased to directly share the below report (edited for clarity, as needed).
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Efwetero Cultural Development Self Help Group is comprised of women and men who came together from different communities with an aim of eradicating poverty. The group was started in the year 2009 and is registered with the ministry of social services in Kenya.
The group has 22 members where 10 are men and 12 are women. The group has four main activities that which aim to help eradicate poverty in their respective communities. They include:
- Food production
- Table banking (also known as community lending)
- Support orphaned children by paying school fees and cater for their basic needs
In food production, the group grows green vegetables, peppers, cucumbers and carrots. The crops are harvested and sold to the local market including the supermarkets. The cash obtained from the harvest is then used to care for the needs of the orphans as well as for giving loans to the group members who in turn pay back with interest to replenish funds.
Through this group, women are now able to carry out some responsibilities in their families without much dependency on their husbands. Because of their continued efforts, the group has been able to benefit from other agencies, like USAID who has begun constructing latrines for different households with an aim of improving on their hygiene and sanitation conditions.
CURRENT WATER SOURCE
A stream is located 2km away down the valley. The stream is surrounded by the three communities who greatly depend on it.
The communities and the Self Help Group are limited and in danger from consuming water from this supply as it is an open source and the stream cannot meet their need for household water supply for cleaning and cooking. As a matter of fact, the group's activities have stalled due to an insufficient supply of water for the production of food. Women are forced to make long queues waiting to fetch water which is not safe for human consumption.
The Self Help Group says that the poor harvest of their crops are due to the lack of a sustainable water source that would provide adequate water throughout all the seasons.
As a result of drinking the contaminated water from the current source, the community members have complained of diarrhea and typhoid diseases among the children and elderly people. This means that no water treatment is done, either at household level or at the source.
POPULATION
The communities have an approximate number of 25 households each containing 7 to 10 people per household. This means the 3 communities in the group have a combined population of over 600 people.
(Editor's Note: While this many people may have access on any given day, realistically a single water source can only support a population of 350-500 people. This community would be a good candidate for a second project in the future so adequate water is available. To learn more, click here.)
HYGIENE & SANITATION
Most of the household members have knowledge of good hygiene and sanitation. At least every house hold has a latrine in place though not a super structure. (Meaning it is an unimproved open pit latrine with no concrete walls) Improvised hand washing stations are kept next to the latrines indicating that hand washing is done after visiting the latrines. Soap or ash is not seen at the hand washing station meaning that hand washing is done without soap or ash.
Other sanitation and hygiene components like dish racks, composite pits and cloth lines are in place.
Women are responsible for house hold hygiene and sanitation since men are out to look for the daily income.
ASSESSING THE NEED
If a fresh well is drilled for these communities, the Self Help Group will have relief since water will be available for irrigation of their crops. Water is also needed for cooking, drinking, washing and watering domestic animals.
PROJECT BENEFICIARIES
The project will be of great benefit to the Self Help Group and the communities at large.
WATER COMMITTEE
Through the help of the Self Help Group, a strong water committee will be formed to ensure proper sustainability of the water system.
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
COMMUNITY EDUCATION TRAINING
Even though the weather conditions in the western part of Kenya are not favorable for people to get out of their shelters and converge in one place, the women and other community members ignored the ongoing rains and came together for a hygiene and sanitation training.
Very many aspects of good hygiene and sanitation were dealt with during this training. Among the women present, some of them already had knowledge on good hygiene and sanitation practices. In fact, the women have in the recent past observed the practices of water treatment before drinking, proper hand washing during critical moments among other practices.
The community has in the past received health workers who have at least trained every house hold on proper hygiene and sanitation. A few community members have a negative attitude, ignoring the risks and effects of poor hygiene and sanitation. To address this, the community members were reminded on the importance observing the hygiene practices as well as the risks of failure to observe the good practices.
The leadership of the self help group with the support of the local leadership promised to keep training the community members so as the community members makes it a good habit hence overcome the outbreak of the water diseases.
DRILLING
As soon as the hygiene and sanitation training was completed. The drilling team mobilized to the site in preparation for drilling. The community members availed their water storage containers in which water was kept in for drilling.
Before drilling was started, a mud pit was dug and materials like the gravel pack and the casing pipes were brought to the site.
The actual drilling started on 23rd of October at 10:30 am Kenyan time despite the fact it was raining heavily nonstop. The drilling process continued on well until 4:30 pm at a depth of 30 meters.
On 24th of October, early in the morning, the team went back to continue drilling where a total depth of 40 meters was reached.
A first water aquifer was struck at a depth of 10 meters while the second aquifer was struck at a depth of 25 meters. It was a challenge to realize where the aquifers begun since a mud drilling process was used. The third aquifer was struck at a depth of 30 meters and a rock was experienced at a depth of 35 meters.
The hole was cased using a 5 inch casing pipes up to the bottom thereafter gravel packing was done. To complete the drilling process, a flushing was done to clean the well.
PUMP INSTALLATION AND HANDING OVER
After the well pad had cured, the bridge water project team went for pump installation and handing over.
From every corner of this community, women, children and men converged to the new site to witness the beginning of the whole process until end with high hopes of having an access to clean and safe water.
For the women in the self help group, their passion for continuing with more activities of crop and animal production had become true since they will no longer walk long distances in search of water for irrigation in this case.
In a span of 20 to 30 minutes, the service team was through with installing the new affridev pump and everyone was excited to see water flowing from the system for the first time.
Faces of joy and excitement are what could be seen. Traditional songs relaying messages of hope and hard work were sung by women.
Now, with the presence of sufficient water supply in the community, life will be manageable especially for women and children who have a burden of ensuring that water is available for the family.
As an implementing organization, we continue to believe that the new drilled well will serve the community and cause a positive impact on the hygiene and sanitation condition of the people.
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO MADE THIS PROJECT POSSIBLE
