Rehabilitation Project
After rain, Ematsayi Primary School's rain tanks will hold water for one or two weeks. Once the water runs out, though, the school administration asks all 324 students to bring a heavy jerrycan full of water with them to school, and even then, there is never enough water.
In order to avoid this difficult circumstance, the administration is always trying to broker deals with the owners of nearby water sources to allow Ematsayi's students to fetch water there. But time and time again, students are turned away and left wandering outside the school begging for water or collecting it from streams.
"Some time back, we tried to fetch water from a neighboring school, but we couldn't do it for long as it caused confusion in [the] learning sessions of our fellow pupils and made the headteacher stop us," said student Valentine O (shown below).
"We also waste a lot of time getting water from neighbors due to long queues. One time, we wasted two hours trying to find water to wash our classrooms from a passing stream. That day, we were not able to have our evening lessons, and not all classes were able to be cleaned."
"As the headteacher, [I] am not happy seeing my pupils carry water in containers to school, but what can I do?" said teacher Phillip Murungi (pictured below). "Pupils [go] to one of the neighborhoods to find water during cleaning days. Some days, they are denied water for fear of depletion. I feel this has interfered with high-performance expectations, though my children do well in academics."
"The hand-dug wells in the neighborhood pose [a] risk of accidents as they have wide openings," Mr. Murungi continued. "The pupils supervise themselves during the drawing of water, which brings doubt about their safety and time wastage."
Getting water wherever they can find it has stymied the school's ability to track which water sources cause chronic cases of diarrhea among the students, even though they keep a record of who is sent home from school and when.
The administration purchased water filtration containers to help with this, but filtered water only helps when they can get enough of it to spare for students to drink. If there isn't enough water to clean classrooms and latrines or fill handwashing stations, students will continue to get sick, hurting their health and the futures they are working so hard to secure.
A well of their own on the school campus should bring some relief.
Note: This water point can only serve 300 people per day. We are working with the community to identify other water solutions that will ensure everyone has access to safe and reliable drinking water.
Water at schools is unique, which is why we need unique solutions.
The Proposed Solution, Determined Together...
At The Water Project, everyone has a part in conversations and solutions. We operate in transparency, believing it benefits everyone. We expect reliability from one another as well as our water solutions. Everyone involved makes this possible through hard work and dedication.
In a joint discovery process, community members determine their most advantageous water solution alongside our technical experts. Read more specifics about this solution on the What We're Building tab of this project page. Then, community members lend their support by collecting needed construction materials (sometimes for months ahead of time!), providing labor alongside our artisans, sheltering and feeding the builders, and supplying additional resources.
Water Access for Everyone
This water project is one piece in a large puzzle. In Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, we're working toward complete coverage of reliable, maintained water sources that guarantee public access now and in the future within a 30-minute round trip for each community, household, school, and health center. One day, we hope to report that this has been achieved!
Training on Health, Hygiene & More
With the community's input, we've identified topics where training will increase positive health outcomes at personal, household, and community levels. We'll coordinate with them to find the best training date. Some examples of what we train communities on are:
- Improved hygiene, health, and sanitation habits
- Safe water handling, storage & treatment
- Disease prevention and proper handwashing
- Income-generation
- Community leadership, governance, & election of a water committee
- Operation and maintenance of the water point
Handwashing Stations
Alongside each water source, we also provide two new gravity-fed handwashing stations that will allow everyone at the school to wash their hands without running water. Handwashing is so important to help prevent future water-related illnesses in the school community.
The student health club will maintain the stations, fill them with water, and supply them with soap (which we will teach the school community how to make during the training!).
VIP Latrines
In addition, we will construct two triple-door Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrine blocks designed to prevent fecal disease transmission. Each latrine will have a cement floor, which is easy to use and clean regularly. Three doors will serve the girls, and three doors will serve the boys.
