Project Status



Project Type:  Protected Spring

Regional Program: Western Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 350 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - May 2018

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 12/05/2024

Project Features


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Community Profile

Lwenya is located in Vihiga County, Kenya and is home to about 350 people.

In the morning hours, you'll see women rushing around to do chores like milking cows, selling milk, fetching water, cleaning, and digging in their kitchen gardens. They'll heat up rice or maize if there's any left so that children can have a quick breakfast before they walk to school. After children are on their way, adults earn money by either working on their farms or running small businesses (like repair shops). Brewing alcohol is also a popular endeavor. Women normally return home a little before lunch to prepare food for their husbands and children, who return for an hour from their jobs and school.

Water

Everyone relies on water fetched from Warosi Spring, which is an open and unprotected source of water. It is contaminated from all forms of pollutants; people slide into the water as they fetch it, dirt is washed in when it rains, and animals drink from this same water. People even admit that the water is dirty, but they have no other option for their drinking, cooking, and cleaning needs. They say that after consuming this dirty water, they experience serious diarrhea.

Sanitation

Less than half of households have a pit latrine. These are simple latrines made of logs, iron sheet roofs, and plastic bags for doors. Since most floors are made of wood, they're susceptible to rotting away and endangering the user. This low latrine coverage is indicative of an expansive open defecation issue; so many families are opting for the privacy of bushes to relieve themselves.

This same low number of families have helpful tools like dish racks and clotheslines to keep their belongings off the ground. Even if they're cleaning these items, they're contaminated from being left out to dry on bushes or the ground.

It's obvious that mosquito nets have been distributed around Lwenya, but community members are not using them properly. Instead of hanging them over their beds, they're using them as fencing outside. We also observed that some families are throwing their litter all around their household compounds.

Agatha Vike is a mother who relies on selling the milk she gets from her cows. She told us, "Poor health has caused us many health challenges, and therefore we welcome you in this village and request for your help as we are all aware that anybody that comes here with the aim of doing any project is someone that is concerned about us. By protecting our spring and bringing us health education, you will have solved so many problems of this area."

What we can do:

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. One of the most important topics we plan to cover is open defecation and its dangers, as well as having and using a pit latrine.

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. The fence will keep out destructive animals, and the drainage will keep the area’s mosquito population at a minimum.

Sanitation Platforms

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

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 chosen for sanitation platforms 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.

Spring Protection

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.

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.

This project is a part of our shared program with Western Water And Sanitation Forum (WEWASAFO). Our team is pleased to provide the reports for this project (edited for readability) thanks to the hard work of our friends in Kenya.

Project Updates


June, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Lwenya Community, Warosi 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.

Trainer Erick holds 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 Lwenya, Kenya.

We trained more than 14 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.

Trainer Laura Alulu demonstrates handwashing

At the time, social distancing was a new concept and one that challenges cultural norms. Although some community members were hesitant to adopt social distancing during the training, we sensitized them on its importance and effectiveness in combating the spread of the virus.

Trainer Laura handwashing

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.

Trainer Erick shows how to make a mask

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.

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.

A community member holds the reminder chart

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.

All eyes on Trainer Erick

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.




September, 2019: Giving Update: Lwenya Community, Warosi Spring

A year ago, your generous donation helped Lwenya Community in Kenya access clean water.

There’s an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water at Warosi Spring in Lwenya. Month after month, their giving supports ongoing sustainability programs that help this community maintain access to safe, reliable water. Read more…




May, 2018: Lwenya Community Project Complete

Lwenya Community now has clean water! Warosi Spring has been transformed into a flowing source of clean water thanks to your donation. The spring is protected from contamination, five sanitation platforms have been provided for the community, and training has been given in sanitation and hygiene.

New Knowledge

Mr. Bramwel, who was our contact person, worked with the local leaders and the and family living by the spring to invite the entire community to hygiene and sanitation training. They worked to have at least one representative for each household, but all were asked to come. We ended up having a total of 16 community members meet us at the spring for onsite training sessions.

Though people came to attend our training, not all the expected attendees were there. The training coincided with the planting season in Western Kenya, and many people were not willing to sacrifice their time for the longterm gain. Those who came to training had found or hired someone else to work on their farms.

Participants were excited about the completed spring, wanting to know what their role would be in managing their new clean water source. They actively discussed ways of ensuring that the water project serves its purpose.

Learning about how important it is to protect the spring box and how to do so effectively.

70-year-old Samuel Saina is now the chairman of the water committee.

"The concept of helping the community formulate rules and regulations on the spring's use and management is a crucial element that will help foster harmony among the users while at the same time helping us enjoy the fruits of this new spring for a long time," he shared.

"Initially, no one was giving any keen interest in protecting this water source from getting polluted, but now we must do so with joined hands and a common goal."

Mr. Samuel Saina

We covered several topics including leadership and governance; operation and maintenance of the spring; healthcare; family planning; immunizations; the spread of disease and prevention. We also covered water treatment methods, personal care like handwashing, environmental hygiene, hygiene promotion, and many other things.

We handed out new notebooks so that people could write down or draw what they were learning. 

Sanitation Platforms

All five sanitation platforms were installed. These five families are happy about this milestone of having a private latrine of their own and are optimistic that people will no longer leave waste outdoors. Those who had dilapidated old latrines rushed to demolish the rotten floors, while others had to start afresh by digging a new pit. We are continuing to encourage families to finish building walls and roofs over their new latrine floors.

Men working together to cast one of the sanitation platforms.

Spring Protection

Community members provided all locally available construction materials, e.g bricks, wheelbarrows of clean sand, wheelbarrows of ballast, fencing poles and gravel. Accommodations and meals were provided for the artisan, too.

Men and women lent their strength to the artisan to help him with manual labor. The spring area was excavated to create space for setting the foundation of polyethylene, wire mesh and concrete. This proved to be the most difficult part of the process since the ground around Lwenya is extremely rocky. Much effort was spent trying to break the rocks to make room for the spring's foundation.

After the base had been set, both wing walls and the headwall were set in place using brickwork. The discharge pipe was fixed low in place through the headwall to direct the water from the reservoir to the drawing area.

As the wing walls and headwall were curing, the stairs were set and ceramic tiles were fixed directly below the discharge pipe. This protects the concrete from the erosive force of the falling water and beautifies the spring. The process of plastering the headwall and wing walls on both sides reinforces the brickwork and prevents water from the reservoir from seeping through the walls and allows pressure to build in the collection box to push water up through the discharge pipe.

The source area was filled up with clean hardcore and covered with a polyethylene membrane to eliminate any potential sources of contamination. It took about two weeks of patience for the concrete to dry.

Mr. Bramwel and his neighbors

Mr. Bramwel and many other community members were there waiting for the okay to fetch their first containers of clean water. We were there to share in that momentous celebration, capturing the smiles seen all around.

"This water point was initially exposed to contamination from all forms of pollutants because it was used by a variety of people, including children," Mr. Bramwel said on behalf of the community.

"Not to mention the fact that it was an open source. Some people slid into the water as they looked for where to step on while drawing water using their jugs. But now we are very confident that even if we send children to fetch this water, it is indeed clean and safe."

"It has become our source of water and of joy and prestige as well!"




January, 2018: Lwenya Community Project Underway

Lwenya Community will soon have a clean, safe source of water thanks to your donation. Community members have been drinking contaminated water from Warosi Spring, and often suffer physical illnesses after doing so. Our partner conducted a survey of the area and deemed it necessary to protect the spring, build new sanitation platforms (safe, easy-to-clean concrete floors for latrines), and conduct sanitation and hygiene training. Thanks to your generosity, waterborne disease will no longer be a challenge for the families drinking the spring’s water. We look forward to sharing more details with you as they come! But for now, please take some time to check out the report containing community information, pictures, and maps.




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!


Giving Update: Lwenya Community, Warosi Spring

September, 2019

A year ago, your generous donation helped Lwenya Community in Kenya access clean water – creating a life-changing moment for Josh Luvembe. Thank you!

Keeping The Water Promise

There's an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water in Lwenya Community, Warosi Spring.

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Lwenya Community, Warosi Spring maintain access to safe, reliable water. Together, they keep The Water Promise.

We’re confident you'll love joining this world-changing group committed to sustainability!

The lives of community members in Lwenya have greatly improved since the protection of Warosi Spring last year.

Accessing clean and safe drinking water from Warosi spring has helped to reduce incidences of waterborne diseases that were once so rampant here. The situation was worse before the spring protection since there was both human and animal waste just near the water point. During the dry season when many other water points dried up, this added to the water users at Warosi Spring who unintentionally were contaminating the surrounding water and muddying the water for others.

Today much has changed. There is a lot of ease while drawing water, saving both time and energy. Health standards have improved across the village and within households, and children can attend school in good health. This has seen the young learners in the area improving their academic performance since they are now present and healthy at school more often.

The community was quick to notice the fortune brought to them by protecting Warosi Spring. Through the words shared with us in interviews and conversations, and from the expressions on their faces, we saw and heard much appreciation for the spring protection. Community members truly enjoy the fruits of using clean water, and they are always ready and willing to make improvements wherever they can.

Timothy Alulu (left) with Mr. Josh Luvembe

"Initially you could find human waste [from] children who used to accompany their mothers, who could wash from the water point," said Josh Luvembe, who depends on Warosi Spring for water.

"That no longer happens, hence cases of absenteeism in schools due to diarrhea from waterborne disease[s] have been minimized since the spring was protected. Due to this, academic performance has also improved. The farm owner where the spring is located used to graze his animals near the water point, [but then] he was advised on the importance of hygiene near the spring, [and] since the spring was protected he doesn't send the animals there."

Field Officer Laura Alulu with Mr. Luvembe

14-year-old Timothy Alulu also shared with us what this water point has meant to him over the last year.

"This spring has helped us improve on cleanliness; before yes, we could get water, but it was dirty," he said.

"[I] am no longer bothered by the dirt since we continually get clean water from the spring. Bathing and drinking clean water now gives me confidence while going to school. We don't struggle anymore while fetching water from the spring since water flows and you can get as much as you want."

Mr. Luvembe (center) with family and neighbors at the spring

Navigating through intense dry spells, performing preventative maintenance, conducting quality repairs when needed and continuing to assist community leaders to manage water points are all normal parts of keeping projects sustainable. The Water Promise community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Lwenya Community, Warosi Spring maintain access to safe, reliable water.

We’d love for you to join this world-changing group committed to sustainability.

The most impactful way to continue your support of Lwenya Community, Warosi Spring – and hundreds of other places just like this – is by joining our community of monthly givers.

Your monthly giving will help provide clean water, every month... keeping The Water Promise.