Project Status



Project Type:  Borehole Well and Hand Pump

Program: Wells for Schools - Kenya

Impact: 500 Served

Project Phase: 
Community Managed
Implementing Partner Monitoring Data Unavailable
Initial Installation: Jan 2012

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Community Profile

This information was provided by our partner IcFEM

Sabata K.A.G. Primary School

The school is attended by 800 pupils and is located in Trans-Nzoia West district, part of the most fertile 17% of agricultural land that is famously known as the ‘bread basket’ of Kenya. Unsurprisingly this area is densely populated as many people moved into the region to take advantage of the excellent opportunities for growing food. As with many areas of Kenya, maize is the staple crop grown by the small-scale subsistence farmers who form the majority group in the area, with beans the other principle crop and others breeding livestock for meat and dairy products.

3 shopping centres – located around the main road running through the area – provide the focus for microenterprise activity, but manual labour work provides the major way of raising income in the area alongside farming.

Following the violence which followed the controversial elections in 2007, a number of displaced families and individuals were temporarily settled in Kiminini. The majority of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have returned to their former areas of residence, but some families and individuals remain in the area.

Charles Khisa Ngwangwe – the pastor of the adjacent K.A.G. church – uses water from a seasonal shallow well, from which water is available whilst the water level is higher during rainy season. As is the typical situation for most local households, the women are the principal gatherers of water although some girls are also responsible for fetching the water for their household. Charles expects that there will be many benefits from the project, such as;

  • Clean water for domestic use
  • Improved farming during the dry season
  • More water for livestock
  • A reduction in water-borne diseases
  • Extra time available for the household where once they would have been searching for water
  • Reducing hunger due to higher yields from the crops
  • Better environmental conservation – local tree nurseries will be able to provide better stock allowing more trees to be planted and to flourish

Mary Mayende of Sabata K.A.G. Primary School expressed her gratitude for the project, which will serve not just the school but more than 14 villages which surround the site. She says that the total number of people to benefit from the project will be approximately 10,000, and that the project will be a big relief to the big local population which has been lacking clean water.

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Abundant water is often right under our feet! Beneath the Earth’s surface, rivers called aquifers flow through layers of sediment and rock, providing a constant supply of safe water. For borehole wells, we drill deep into the earth, allowing us to access this water which is naturally filtered and protected from sources of contamination at the surface level. First, we decide where to drill by surveying the area and determining where aquifers are likely to sit. To reach the underground water, our drill rigs plunge through meters (sometimes even hundreds of meters!) of soil, silt, rock, and more. Once the drill finds water, we build a well platform and attach a hand pump. If all goes as planned, the community is left with a safe, closed water source providing around five gallons of water per minute! Learn more here!