Rehabilitation Project
The work of bringing clean water to those in need is never easy. Sometimes it is downright frustrating. This project is a replacement for an attempt to rehabilitate an existing well that failed in the same community earlier this year (click here to see the original project page). Since that well could not be restored, we have worked with our partner, Bridge Water Project, to put this new effort in motion building a brand new well. Thank you for your patience as we worked to implement this solution.
BACKGROUND
The proposed Ematoyi market is a market where buying and selling of goods are done. The market has more than 10 permanent shops and several Kiosks with different commodities. The market has an open space where different business activities occur i.e. livestock poultry and cereals are sold.
Ematoyi market water project is a well drilled by Kenya Finland Water Supply Programme. The well was drilled in the year 1989. The well recorded a total depth of 45m, static water level of 24m, cased by 4 inch steel casings that got rusted and was allowing mud and dirt to penetrate to the well.
During the flushing of the well, part of the process of rehabilitation, broken upvc casings from the bottom were splashing out hence allowing mud to flow into the bottom of the well, and this made water not to clear. As a result we declared the well to be a failed rehabilitation project. However, looking at the expectation of Ematoyi community that Bridge Water had come to intervene in the community's lack of access of sufficient water, we considered drilling a new well to fulfill the community's expectation.
To make this a success, Bridge Water Project has decided to do a confirmatory survey to identify a suitable point for drilling and do proper development of the well to avoid previous mistakes.
CURRENT WATER SOURCE
Currently, there is no water source around the market. However, during marketing day, some people from Ematoyi community also take advantage of the situation whereby they fetch water from unknown sources and retail it at a fee of Kshs. 10 per 20 liter Jerrican to people at open air market and to the food kiosk owners. This kind of business exposes a lot of dangers to people’s health since none can guarantee the quality of such water.
POPULATION
During the official marketing days, estimated populations of 1500 to 2000 people come to the market for their daily business activities. However, an estimated population of 150 – 200 people live at the market.
HYGIENE & SANITATION
The Ematoyi market has two public toilets for both male and female, no refuse chamber, no hand washing stations as well.
ASSESSING THE NEED
There is need to rehabilitate Ematoyi market well to enable the residents, business people and the entire community to access clean and quality water for their daily domestic use to improve the hygiene and sanitation status.
PROJECT BENEFICIARIES
The Ematoyi residents, business people and the entire community will greatly benefit from this market water source.
WATER COMMITTEE
The Ematoyi market water committee was formed during our first visit and was trained prior to the implementation of the proposed project to enable them understand the operation, maintenance, sanitation and hygiene to ensure sustainability of the water project. The Ematoyi market is a public property owned and managed by the Navakholo Sub-county government whereby the proposed water rehab project has a market management committee comprised of the business people who will be responsible for the proposed water supply.
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
PHASE 1: EMATOYI MARKET WATER PROJECT HYGIENE AND SANITATION
When the project was to be a rehabilitation, the community was trained on good hygiene and sanitation. Since the rehabilitation of the well was not successfully done, the project is to be re-drilled and therefore a recap of a hygiene and sanitation training was done.
During the training, the community members were receptive but they claimed to have not put all the knowledge into practice since water which is essential for human hygiene and sanitation is not in place.
On the recap of the training, the following key topics were dealt with:
1. Identifying the problems in the community.
2. Identifying the source of the problems.
3. Identifying the solutions towards the problems (water treatment methods, hand washing, use of latrines and proper preparation and handling of food).
By the use of a tool called a seasonal calendar, the community members identified the diseases that occur in the community during the two seasons i.e. rainy and dry seasons. Some of the diseases identified by the community members were;
As expressed by the community members, the diseases occurred throughout the seasons. Contrary to what the community members believed could be cause of the diseases, they were able to learn that the diseases are a result of poor practices of hygiene and sanitation.
For more identification of the sources of the waterborne diseases in the community, the members were able carry out more activities which helped them to investigate between good and bad practices.
Hand washing is a major issue in this community. The practice has been overlooked by the community members and therefore this called for a discussion on proper hand washing. A serious discussion was also done on when hands must be washed and the risks of not hand washing.
To conclude the training, the community members learned that good practices of hygiene and sanitation will lead to a better and healthy living.
PHASE 2: EMATOYI 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 kept on the ground.
The actual drilling begun on 30th of September at 3:30 pm Kenyan time. The process begun late in the evening as a result of minor problems which needed to be fixed before the process begins. The drilling process continued on well until 7.30 pm at a depth of 20 meters.
On 1st of October, early in the morning, the team went back to continue drilling where a total depth of 30 meters was reached.
A first water aquifer was struck at a depth of 12 meters while the second aquifer was stricken a depth of 20 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 32 meters.
The hole was cased using 5 inch casing pipes to the bottom; thereafter gravel packing was done. To complete the drilling process, a flushing was done to clean the well.
WELL PAD CONSTRUCTION
After drilling the well, the service team mobilized to the site for well pad construction.
The community members and market dwellers were present and helped to fetch water from a far stream which was used for the construction.
As the work went on, the market dwellers showed their gratitude by providing soft drinks to the working men.
The construction work took two days upon which a hand pump will be installed after its curing.
PHASE 3: PUMP INSTALLATION AND HANDING OVER
As soon as the well pad had been constructed and cured, the Bridge Water Project team went to the site for pump installation and later handing over.
The pump installation process was successfully done as the community members stood side by side to see whether the dream of have having clean, adequate and safe water would be valid. Once water was seen flowing from the pump system, they all moved closer in disbelief of what they thought could be the same case of the other project that had failed.
Remembering all the work that had been done between the failed rehabilitation and this new borehole to ensure that the market dwellers and the community members have an access to clean and safe water, the community members expressed their happiness and explained of how life was hard without the access to clean water. We were reminded of how the businesses in the market had been affected for so long since more entrepreneurs could not bring their commodities to the market in fear of lack of access to clean and safe water for drinking.
With the presence of water in the market and the community, the members said that life will be normal and enjoyable.
Those who practiced farming in this community said that they now expect high production of milk from their local dairy cows since water is available for their animals.
Women also have a reason to smile because they were forced to walk long distances in search of water for their domestic use.
Water being a source of life and nourishment, we continue to believe that the new drilled well will serve the community and the market, having a positive impact on the hygiene and sanitation condition of the people.
