Matsakha Primary School

A rainwater catchment collects and stores the rain a community already receives. We channel rainfall off a large, clean surface, usually a roof, through gutters and a filtered inlet into a high-capacity tank sized to the local population and rainfall. Sealed in the tank, the water stays clean and usable for months, carrying families through the dry season. It is a practical way to make the most of every rain, made possible by your partnership.

Learn more about rainwater catchments here!

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Learn more about The Water Promise.

Project Status

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.