Project Status



Project Type:  Protected Spring

Regional Program: Western Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 211 Served

Project Phase:  Decommissioned

Project Features


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Community Profile

This project is a part of our shared program with Western Water and Sanitation Forum (WEWASAFO). Our team is pleased to directly share the below report (edited for clarity, as needed).

Welcome to the Community

Mundoli Village is home to 211 people from 31 different households. Most adults spend their days working on their farms to get enough food to feed their families. Some of the men engage in brick-making to sell construction materials to neighboring villages that need them, while their wives tend to smaller gardens.

Water Situation

These 211 people rely on Isaac Jumba Spring for their water. Isaac Jumba Spring is named after the landowner who lives with his family nearby.

Community members bring jerrycans and buckets along with smaller jugs to bail water. The full buckets are brought back home and dumped into even larger barrels of 100 to 200-liter capacities. Drinking water is poured into covered clay pots that are known to keep the water cooler.

"Most of the community members lack latrines and therefore go into the bushes, making the area so smelly. When it rains, the rainwater washes away the feces and contaminates our water sources. Your coming to this community will help us access clean and safe water," shared Mrs. Jumba.

During our visit, community members described how a child here came down with typhoid and died soon after. On receiving news that there are steps that can be taken to prevent things like this, the community was filled with hope and excitement.

Sanitation Situation

No more than half of households have their own pit latrine. Those observed are old and dirty, with a floor made of logs. These floors are hard to clean, and can also rot away and endanger the user. Walls are made of mud or other cheap materials like banana leaves and plastic bags. Because of these poor conditions, open defecation is an issue in this area. This results in waste that is spread around the community via flies and rainwater.

Mrs. Lukokolo admitted that she is one of the many community members without a good place to use the bathroom. She has been defecating in an open pit surrounded by a sugarcane plantation. If she receives help building a new latrine, she vows to never use that open pit again. She now has plans to dig a pit in preparation for a sanitation platform, and will surround it with a decent superstructure.

There are no hand-washing stations and very few helpful tools like dish racks and clotheslines.

Plans: Hygiene and Sanitation Training

Community members will attend hygiene and sanitation training for at least two days. This training will ensure participants are no longer ignorant about healthy practices and their importance. The facilitator plans to use PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation), CLTS (Community-Led Total Sanitation), ABCD (Asset-Based Community Development), group discussions, handouts, and demonstrations at the spring.

Training will also result in the formation of a committee that will oversee operations and maintenance at the spring. They will enforce proper behavior around the spring and delegate tasks that will help preserve the site, such as building a fence and digging proper drainage.

Plans: Sanitation Platforms

On the final day of training, participants will select five families that should benefit from new latrines.

Training will also inform the community and selected families on what they need to contribute to make this project a success. They must mobilize locally available materials, such as bricks, clean sand, hardcore, and ballast. The five families must prepare by sinking a pit for the sanitation platforms to be placed over. All community members must work together to make sure that accommodations and food are always provided for the work teams.

Plans: Spring Protection

Fetching water is predominantly a female role, done by both women and young girls. Protecting the spring and offering training and support will therefore help empower the female members of the community by giving them more time and efforts to engage and invest in income-generating activities.

In addition, protecting the spring will ensure that the water is safe, adequate and secure. Construction will keep surface runoff and other contaminants out of the water.

"Once the spring is protected," said 20-year-old Joseph Jumba, "we will ensure it is fenced and that we enforce rules prohibiting anyone from washing at the spring. We cannot afford to contaminate the spring any longer."

Project Updates


February, 2024: Project Change in Mundoli Community

Projects, like water itself, are fluid.

Sometimes, there are unique circumstances that can neither be resolved nor reversed that turn a well-loved water point into one that has failed to meet the expectations of both the community it serves and our own commitment to help provide access to safe and reliable water.

Unfortunately, Isaac Jumba Spring is no longer meeting the water needs of Mundoli Community. Despite repeated efforts, spent resources, and a lot of patience from the community and our team, the community has abandoned the spring due to low discharge caused by Eucalyptus trees impacting the groundwater flow.

The Water Project, community members, and local leaders have decided together that decommissioning Isaac Jumba Spring is the best course of action. As a result, we will no longer make monitoring visits here.




June, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Mundoli Village, Isaac Jumba Spring

Our teams are working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us in our fight against the virus while maintaining access to clean, reliable water.

Facilitator explains the prevention reminders chart

We are carrying out awareness and prevention trainings on the virus in every community we serve. Very often, our teams are the first (and only) to bring news and information of the virus to rural communities like COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Mundoli Village, Isaac Jumba Spring, Kenya.

We trained more than 8 people on the symptoms, transmission routes, and prevention of COVID-19. Due to public gathering concerns, we worked with trusted community leaders to gather a select group of community members who would then relay the information learned to the rest of their family and friends.

Homemade mask tutorial

We covered essential hygiene lessons:

- Demonstrations on how to build a simple handwashing station

- Proper handwashing technique

- The importance of using soap and clean water for handwashing

- Cleaning and disinfecting commonly touched surfaces including at the water point.

Handwashing demonstration

We covered COVID-19-specific guidance in line with national and international standards:

- Information on the symptoms and transmission routes of COVID-19

- What social distancing is and how to practice it

- How to cough into an elbow

- Alternative ways to greet people without handshakes, fist bumps, etc.

- How to make and properly wear a facemask.

Handwashing

During training, we installed a new handwashing station with soap near the community’s water point, along with a sign with reminders of what we covered.

Handwashing

Due to the rampant spread of misinformation about COVID-19, we also dedicated time to a question and answer session to help debunk rumors about the disease and provide extra information where needed.

Facilitator Christine Masinde in action

We continue to stay in touch with this community as the pandemic progresses. We want to ensure their water point remains functional and their community stays informed about the virus.

Sharing informational pamphlets on COVID-19

Water access, sanitation, and hygiene are at the crux of disease prevention. You can directly support our work on the frontlines of COVID-19 prevention in all of the communities we serve while maintaining their access to safe, clean, and reliable water.




Project Photos


Project Type

Springs are water sources that come from deep underground, where the water is filtered through natural layers until it is clean enough to drink. Once the water pushes through the surface of the Earth, however, outside elements like waste and runoff can contaminate the water quickly. We protect spring sources from contamination with a simple waterproof cement structure surrounding layers of clay, stone, and soil. This construction channels the spring’s water through a discharge pipe, making water collection easier, faster, and cleaner. Each spring protection also includes a chlorine dispenser at the waterpoint so community members can be assured that the water they are drinking is entirely safe. Learn more here!


Contributors

2 individual donor(s)