A year ago, your generous donation helped the Chimoroni Secondary School in Kenya access clean water – creating a life-changing moment for Sharon. Thank you!
Last year, your gift unlocked the potential for a brighter future for Sharon. Since then, she and the Chimoroni Secondary School community of 931 students have had clean, reliable water. Your contribution has made a significant impact. Thank you for making a difference!
"I rarely get sick since we now have clean water to drink and cook," said Sharon.
Before the Well Installation
Like many children in Kenya, 17-year-old Sharon is responsible for collecting water to meet her and her family’s daily water needs. Before last year’s water intervention, that task stole her time and negatively affected her.
Students previously had to wait in long lines and travel long distances to collect water.
Limited accessibility to water meant students wasted time collecting sufficient water to meet the school's needs and less time in class. When they had to leave the school campus to search for water the difficult journey sapped their physical and emotional energy, creating roadblocks. For Sharon, in particular, it left her exhausted.
"We had to share our water source with the primary section and community. This would cause commotion at the standpipes, [and] sometimes we would miss water totally and we would be really sad," shared Sharon.
Since the Well Installation
Your generous gift last year was much more than a simple donation; it was a powerful statement about your commitment to this community and Sharon’s future. By supporting the water solution, you made clean water an everyday reality for her, fostering hope for a brighter future.
Reliable and clean water lays the groundwork for improved health, education, and economic possibilities, allowing people like Sharon to thrive. We frequently hear from those we interview that "water is life!"
Sharon with other students and school staff at the well.
"Clean water improves personal health [and] prevents water-related diseases. As a girl with clean water, I am more at ease [and I] am positive I will have no infections from water," said Sharon.
The Future is Looking Bright!
A year ago, you made a difference for Sharon and the rest of her school community. This is just the first chapter of their story as access to clean water continues to improve their lives!
At The Water Project, we value sustainability and want to ensure that people continue to thrive. We commit to monitoring this project to ensure the water is always flowing and safe to consume. We inspect the system hardware, track water availability, conduct sanitary inspections, and collect water quality samples to identify risks. We work with our team on the ground to resolve them.
You gave Sharon a crucial tool for achieving her dreams: access to clean water. Together, we can excitedly expect that with this precious resource, her enthusiasm and courage will help her fulfill her dreams.
"My academic performance has improved since the waterpoint was installed. I am neat [and] I have clean uniforms which boosts my self-esteem, thus I concentrate better in my studies and my mind is at ease. When I am not in class I take part in extracurricular activities like school games and clubs. In the agricultural club, I have a small farm where I have vegetables I tend to," said Sharon.
When we asked Sharon about her dreams for the future she said, "I would like to be a president or be in a position of power where I can effect real change, [and] ensure all schools and institutions get basic needs, water included."
Sharon watering plants.
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 Chimoroni Secondary School 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 Chimoroni Secondary School – 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.
The Water Project’s WaSH program in Western Kenya aims to access, protect, filter, and purify the abundant waters that are available through two seasonal rains, prevalent springs, high water tables, and deep aquifers in the region. Explore water projects in communities, schools, and churches in Western Kenya such as protected springs, rainwater catchment systems, and water wells. This program emphasizes the power of strategic geographical saturation of projects, effective hygiene and sanitation training, and relational networking between NGOs, health workers, local politicians, and educators.
A borehole well reaches clean water stored deep underground. We drill down through soil and rock to groundwater that natural layers have already filtered, then build a platform and fit a handpump so families can draw water up close to home. It is a safe, protected source that replaces long walks to open water, and with your partnership it is cared for long after it is installed.
Rehabilitation is not just fixing a pump - it’s total community re-engagement.
There’s only one thing we can think of that might be worse than not having safe water: having safe water, and then losing it because a project fell into disrepair.
Rehabilitation often proves to be a big challenge, as many wells have sit idle for years and there is typically little information about the specifics of the well. A borehole and dug well rehabilitation involves quite a bit of discovery. First, our teams work to discover as much as they can about the initial project. What materials were used? Was the borehole/protected dug well properly constructed? Many of these questions can only be answered by diving in, and doing “the work” which makes up a rehabilitation.
Once our teams have found the problem, they find the solution. Then, they reconstruct the well and install a hand pump.
Engagement and training with communities takes into account rehabilitation was needed and alters the program to suit the needs of the community. After all - engaging with this community in the same way which led to the initial, failed project will not bring new results. Our teams work to understand the social and support reasons leading to initial failure, and make those areas a focus of our ongoing engagement with communities.
Local Leadership
Water projects last because of local leaders. They help us understand the realities on the ground and carry our shared goals to their neighbors. The Water Project identifies and partners with local organizations that share our commitment to water that is reliable, verifiable, and clean. Together we build solutions that belong to the community and keep watch over them for years to come. Your partnership makes that lasting, local work possible.
Community Engagement
The communities we serve are partners in the project, not recipients of it. Long before a single pipe is laid, we sit down with community members to build relationships, plan the project together, agree on how the water point will be managed, and prepare for the ongoing costs of keeping it running. The people who will use the water hold a leading seat at the table. Every project takes real collaboration among many stakeholders, and at each step we hold to the values your partnership makes possible: reliability, relationship, and trust.
Handwashing Stations
Handwashing with soap is one of the simplest, most effective ways to prevent illness, especially for children, who are most vulnerable to diarrheal disease. Our hygiene training shows community members how to build and use handwashing stations. At schools, we install permanent stations and work to keep soap in steady supply, so students and teachers stay healthy and can keep learning and teaching. Your partnership makes this everyday habit possible.
Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) Latrines
Clean water and safe sanitation go hand in hand, which is why every Western Kenyan school project includes Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrines. A vent pipe and a screen over its opening reduce flies and odor, making the latrines cleaner, more pleasant, and more likely to be used, so students have a healthy, dignified place to go during the school day. Your partnership helps provide it.
Hygiene and Sanitation Training
For many communities, water is only the beginning. When every drop has to be rationed, the things that keep people healthy, like bathing, cleaning, and handwashing, fall away, and where school was out of reach, the basics usually taught in health class were never learned. Water alone can't solve this, which is why your gift also funds hands-on training in every community, school, and health center we serve. We tailor each session to the region, but always cover the essentials: safe water handling and storage, personal and environmental hygiene, how disease spreads, how to form and run a water user committee, and how to operate and maintain the new water point. The goal is simple: to put people back in charge of their own health, so growth and development can begin.
Monitoring and Resolution
Across sub-Saharan Africa, too many wells fall into disrepair and are left behind. Reliability is the true measure of our work, so our commitment does not end when a project is finished. Water can only improve a life if it is there every time, and it can take only one sip of unsafe water to undo months of good health. That is why we measure downtime in hours, not days or weeks, and why every hour a water point is down matters. We monitor every project we have completed to keep the water running. Many donors sustain this work through The Water Promise, a community of monthly partners who keep water flowing long after installation day.
We’re working hard to make sure your gifts result in a lasting water project for the community it serves. Our engagement with a community begins many months before construction and lasts years after construction. The timeline here is focused on the physical construction of the water project. There is also training and engagement work that has already started.
Water project construction in the developing world is hard work. A lot of things can and do cause delays - which are normal. We attempt to make our best judgment of when construction will be complete, but the circumstances surrounding actual "in the field" conditions are far from our control.
Weather, supply availability, government paperwork, and progress of community involvement are just a few of the variables that can delay (and sometimes speed up) a project's completion.
We will always tell you if anything changes. And, if you get a notice like this – it’s actually further proof your gifts are being carefully used towards a water project that lasts.
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Community Profile
Chimoroni Secondary School has its own standpipe, but it has numerous problems.
The water source is shared with both the surrounding community and the neighboring primary school, which drains the standpipe's water supply and highly inflates the school's electricity bill. Since electricity is spotty in this region of Kenya, the standpipe often stops working altogether; then, students have to travel off school grounds to fill their jerrycans wherever they can.
The school is already densely populated, with 931 students and 32 staff members. The standpipe is supplied by an overhead rain catchment tank that has a limited supply of water. Sharing the water source among so many people not only drains the tank prematurely, but the overuse also wears on the equipment, causing frequent, costly breakdowns.
"We have longed to have [an] alternative source of water in this compound," said teacher Francis Wanyama (pictured above). "Through you, we hope to have this reality to help the students. During power shortages, students go far away to get water and miss my classes."
Sharing the standpipe also delays students who are sent to fetch water for the school's various purposes, as they are often met with a line of people when they're meant to return straight to class. While they wait, the water level in the tank lowers, so by the time they reach the front of the line, there may not be any water.
"As students, we wish to have our own source of water in the school," said student Ruth O, pictured above in front of the standpipe. "This will enable [us to] access water quickly and easier to spare time for [our] academics. Most evenings, we are unable to access enough [water] because of [its] exhaustion by [the] primary [school] section and community."
A new water source on school grounds will help everyone: the students, staff, and community. They will have more time, energy, and water for all their needs.
What We Can Do:
New Well
We conducted a hydrogeological survey at this school and the results indicated the water table beneath it is an ideal candidate for a borehole well. Due to a borehole well's unique ability to tap into a safe, year-round water column, it will be poised to serve all of the water needs for this school's large population, even through the dry months.
The school will help collect the needed construction materials such as sand, rocks, and water for mixing cement. They will also provide housing and meals for the work team, in addition to providing local laborers. We will complement their materials by providing an expert team of artisans and drilling professionals, tools, hardware, and the hand-pump. Once finished, water from the well will then be used by the school’s students and staff for drinking, handwashing, cooking, cleaning, and much more.
Handwashing Stations
The student health club will oversee the two new handwashing stations we will provide, and make sure they are kept clean and in working condition. The club leaders will fill the handwashing stations with water daily and make sure they are always supplied with a cleaning agent such as soap or ash.
VIP Latrines
We will construct two triple-door latrine blocks using local materials that the school will help gather. Three doors will serve the girls and three doors will serve the boys. All of these new latrines will have cement floors that are designed to be easy to use and to clean. And with a borehole right on school property, there should be enough water to keep them clean.
Training on Health, Hygiene, COVID-19, and More
We will hold a one-day intensive training session with students, teachers, and parents. This training will cover a wide range of topics including COVID-19 symptoms, transmission routes, and prevention; personal and environmental hygiene; and the operation and maintenance of the borehole, latrines, and handwashing stations. There will be a special emphasis on handwashing.
Our team of facilitators will use a variety of methods to train, including participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation, and asset-based community development. We will initiate a student health club, which will prepare students to lead other pupils into healthy habits at school and at home. We will also lead lectures, group discussions, and provide illustrative handouts to teach health topics and ways to promote good hygiene practices within the school including handwashing and water treatment. We will then conduct a series of follow-up trainings before transitioning to our regularly scheduled support visits throughout the year.
We and the school strongly believe that all of these components will work together to improve standards at this school, which will help lead to better student academic performance and will help unlock the opportunity for these students to live better, healthier lives.
Project Updates
April, 2023: Chimoroni Secondary School Borehole Well Complete!
We are excited to share that Chimoroni Secondary School in Kenya now has access to a new, safe, clean water source thanks to the completion of their new borehole well! Students and staff are already using the well’s flowing water, which will provide them with a reliable water source for all of their daily needs.
We also installed new latrines and handwashing stations and trained students and staff on improved sanitation and hygiene practices. Together, these components will unlock the opportunity for these students to live better, healthier lives in the future.
"It is easier to access water at school with a lot of ease," said student Faith M. "From today, [I] am happy because [I] am sure that the water [I] am consuming is clean and from a well-known source. The teachers won't have [a] rough time with us because we used to scramble for the little water that was available."
Faith at the new borehole with a glass of water.
Faith continued: "Students stayed from morning to evening without drinking water, unless some of the students carried [it with them]. When the water from the primary [school] section failed, either because of [the] bursting of pipes, mechanical breakdown, or vandalization of taps, our hope as a school was on the water brought by the vendor, which, most of the time, was not clean. Things have changed from now, because we can access clean water. Our sanitation standards as [a] school will improve because we have plenty of water. We also wish to improve in time management and use the time for academic purposes and improve."
Teachers were just as excited as the students about the new well on campus.
"This water point is a lifesaver now," said Francis Wanyama, whom we interviewed on our first visit to Chimoroni Secondary School.
Mr. Wanyama at the new well.
"We have been buying water for drinking because the water the vendor brings, he just fetches from a passing stream," Mr. Wanyama continued. "Our main water source [was] water from the borehole [at] the primary [school] section, but it is not reliable, like this year alone, we have replaced the pump three times and bought water for almost the entire three months for school use. The water [from the primary school] is cloudy and used for cooking. With this borehole, [I] am sure we are not only consuming clean water, but also using it for other activities. As a teacher, [I] am sure it is going to help us to achieve high hygiene and sanitation standards."
Students fetch water from the new borehole.
"This water point will help [the] teacher on duty and [the] students to be time-conscious," Mr. Wanyama said. "We also expect the number of water-related diseases to drop significantly, because some of the students who consumed water brought from outside had some complaints, like [sore] throats and stomachaches."
How We Got the Water Flowing
Parents, staff, and students all contributed to this well’s success. After determining the best site for the well through a hydrogeological survey, we obtained approval and a license from the government to begin drilling.
To prepare, the school collected fine sand and water for cement-making. When everything was ready, our drill team and staff arrived at the school to begin work.
Setting the drill bit to break ground.
Drilling commenced with excitement in the air. The team drove down a temporary casing to keep the walls from collapsing as the rig progressed. We continued drilling to reach a final depth of 87 meters with a final static water level of 17 meters.
The drilling process can take up to three consecutive days to complete due to this region’s hard bedrock, so the drill team set up a camp where they could rest and refuel. The school’s kitchen staff and parents helped provide meals for the team, while the school provided a safe place for the artisans’ accommodations and materials.
Once we reached the required depth, the team replaced the temporary casing with a permanent version, then bailed out the dirty water at the bottom of the well. The workers installed pipes, flushed them, tested the well’s yield, and chlorinated the water.
Testing the well's yield and pump.
After water treatment, we constructed a cement well pad to seal off the well from any ground-level contaminants. Tiles are installed beneath the spout to protect the cement from the erosive force of the water.
We also included a short drainage channel to carry spilled water away from the pump and prevent standing water. A soak pit absorbs runoff at the end of the drainage channel, further eliminating any stagnant water.
When the well pad was dry, we installed a new stainless steel AfriDev handpump and sampled the water for a quality test. The results showed this water was safe for drinking!
We officially handed over the new borehole to the school’s students and teachers.
Finished project.
Field officer Amos described the moment the ownership of the well passed to the school. "The principal called a small meeting [comprised] of the deputy principal, [the] Parent-Teacher Association chair, three teachers, [and] a class of students from form one, and gave thanks to the organization for great work that has been done at the school."
VIP Latrines
This project funded the installation of six new ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines. These new latrines have cement floors designed to be easy to use and clean, locking doors for safety and privacy, and vents to keep air flowing up and out through the roof. With a well right on school property, there should be enough water to keep them clean.
Handwashing Stations
Students being trained on proper handwashing technique.
We set up two handwashing stations outside the latrines and handed them over to the newly formed student health club. Health club members will teach other students how to wash their hands at the stations properly, fill the stations with water, and ensure that there is always a cleaning agent available.
New Knowledge
We scheduled hygiene and sanitation training with the school’s staff, who ensured that the training date would be convenient for pupils and teachers. When the training day arrived, facilitators Mildred, Christine, and Amos deployed to the site to lead the event. 30 students and teachers attended the training, which we held on the school compound beneath a shade tree.
Facilitator Amos leading an icebreaker.
Our training covered several topics, including personal hygiene, oral hygiene, the ten steps of handwashing, environmental hygiene, child rights, leadership, and operation and maintenance of the well and pump, latrines, and handwashing stations.
Students elected their peers to lead their student health club during the leadership session. Members will encourage good health and hygiene practices amongst their peers, teachers, and the larger community. By the end of the training, each pupil understood their role in sustaining clean water and good health within their school community.
One of the training's more memorable moments came when we discussed bad hygiene practices. Trainers held up posters and asked the students to describe what was happening and why the practice is bad.
A boy describes a poster displaying a bad hygiene practice.
"One of the participants used his friend's name to describe a picture where a boy was urinating near the river," described facilitator Amos. "This left everyone laughing."
The trainer then asked the students if the named person was among the participants, which he was. The first boy's friend stood up and requested to do the next presentation.
"He did the presentation so well, but at the end, he joked [about] his friend being in the picture," Amos continued. "At the end, I realized [these] are two best friends who like making fun of each other. They made the presentation amazing and so memorable."
Another topic that students really enjoyed explained how to maintain the borehole and pump to ensure it lasts for a long time. The students explained that there are other hand pumps around the area that have broken and have never been fixed.
"Having also experienced [a] great challenge of water, the participants said they could do all things good to ensure the pump remains in use," Amos explained.
"The training has been good, and I have learned a lot," said Faith (quoted earlier), who was elected to be secretary of the newly formed student health club. "I have learned the importance of keeping our environment clean because its benefits are so important. I have learned to make soap, and I actively participated during the soap-making process. I can make soap for my family at home if I can get the chemicals and also help the school to make its own [soap] without depending on suppliers. This training has also helped [me] to learn that we can be what we want to be through encouragement from [the] facilitator Amos, [who] talked of patience and sacrifice. We should never give up, and [I] am really encouraged from that."
Students jumping for joy at the new well.
Conclusion
This project required a substantial collaboration between our staff, our in-country teams, and the community members. When an issue arises concerning the well, the students and teachers are 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 their local field officers to assist them.
Also, we will continue to offer them unmatchable support as a part of our monitoring and maintenance program. We walk with each community, problem-solving together when they face challenges with functionality, seasonality, or water quality. Together, all these components help us strive for enduring access to reliable, clean, and safe water for this community.
With your contribution, one more piece has been added to a large puzzle of water projects. In our target areas, we’re working toward complete coverage of reliable, maintained water sources within a 30-minute round trip for each community, household, school, and health center. With this in mind, search through our upcoming projects to see which community you can help next!
Thank you for making all of this possible!
February, 2023: Chimoroni Secondary School Well Underway!
A severe clean water shortage at Chimoroni Secondary School drains students’ time, energy, and health. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install a clean water point and much more.
Get to know this school through the introduction and pictures we’ve posted, and read about this water, sanitation, and hygiene project. We look forward to reaching out with more good news!
Borehole Well and Hand Pump
Rehabilitation Project
