Project Status



Project Type:  Protected Spring

Regional Program: Western Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 200 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - May 2018

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 01/10/2024

Project Features


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Community Profile

In Musango, women and men wake up by 6:30am to start looking for their day's water supply. A lot of the water they gather is used for making bricks, which is their main economic activity. Since there's a lot of construction projects in this area, a brick-maker can always find someone to sell their product to. They also cultivate maize, while  others transport people around with their motorbikes.

If a family doesn't farm cash crops, they'll most likely have a smaller kitchen garden to grow food used for their meals. This helps the entire community access enough food for domestic use. Each adult is motivated to provide enough for their families.

Water

M'muse Spring is the main source of water for several families. They use its water for making bricks, irrigating farms, cleaning, cooking, and drinking. Since the water is fairly shallow, people must bring a smaller container to bail water until their larger container is full.

The water pooling at M'muse Spring is contaminated, especially after the rain washes dirt and waste into the water. After drinking it, people suffer from waterborne diseases like typhoid. Mrs. Christine Khayanje said, "We have had enough of this waterborne disease. Now, it is our time for our health to improve while we enjoy drinking clean and safe water."

Sanitation

Less than half of households have a pit latrine. The few we observed are made of mud walls and have iron sheets for roofs. The other families just don't see the need for a latrine, and go in the bushes instead.

Nobody has a dedicated container for washing hands. Instead, they'll use their main storage barrel or the water they've boiled in their kitchens.

Here's what we're going to do about it:

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 inform the community about what they need to contribute to make the construction for this project a success. They must mobilize locally available materials, such as bricks, clean sand, hardcore, and ballast. All community members must work together to make sure that accommodations and food are always provided for the work teams.

Finally, a committee will be formed that oversees operations and maintenance at the spring. They will enforce proper behavior and delegate tasks that will help preserve the water point, such as building a fence and digging proper drainage.

Sanitation Platforms

On the final day of training, participants will select five families that should benefit from new latrine floors. The five families must prepare by sinking a pit for the sanitation platforms to be placed over.

Spring Protection

Construction will keep surface runoff and other contaminants out of the water, which means the water will be safe, clean, and adequate.

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 (formatted and edited for readability) thanks to the hard work of our friends in Kenya.

Project Updates


May, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Musango Community, M'muse 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.

Handwashing demonstration

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 Musango, Kenya.

Following along with the 10 steps of handwashing

We trained more than 16 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.

Handwashing demonstration

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.

Student Lucy showed her handwashing expertise

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.

Lucy said she would share the information gained at training with other students in the community who are home from school due to national closures

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.

The spring landowner (left) and other women listening to training keenly

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.

Prevention reminders chart installed at spring

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.

Handwashing exercise using a leaky tin

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.




May, 2018: Musango Community Project Complete

Musango Community now has clean water! M'muse 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 done on sanitation and hygiene.

New Knowledge

Rachel, the local organizing secretary, was tasked with organizing the training. She gave us the community’s preferred date for training, for he was very much aware of the community calendar when it comes to planting season and other big events.

Training underway

Some 16 people attended, mostly women. It went as expected. Attendees were prepared and ready to learn from our trainers.

The training was done at one of the participant's compound which is near the protected spring. The environment was conducive for participants learning where they made themselves comfortable.

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.

Brush your teeth twice a day!

The participants were very active throughout the training by asking questions not to miss anything out on the topics they were trained. After the training, they discovered that they have been ignoring this very important message that is to help them improve their health.

"After the training, we as a community have acquired knowledge on how to improve on hygiene habits. knowledge is power and it changes lives" Mrs. Eunice Alutola said.

Sanitation Platforms

Standing on new latrine platform

All five sanitation platforms have been 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. We are continuing to encourage families to finish building walls and roofs over their new latrine floors.

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. 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 stones and sand 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.

As soon as it was ready, people got the okay from our field officers to begin fetching clean water. We met them there to celebrate this momentous occasion.

 

"Since I was born I have never access clean and safe water for drinking like now. May God bless TWP for the support they are giving to us people hear in Kenya through WEWASAFO," Mr. Wilson Oloo said.




April, 2018: Musango Community Project Underway

Dirty water from M'muse Spring is making people in Musango Community sick. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install a clean water point and much more.

Get to know your community through the narrative and pictures we’ve posted, and read about this water, sanitation and hygiene project. We look forward to reaching out with more good news!




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

Data Abstract Solutions, Inc.
berry family
Common Objects Music + Sound
Robert Adams Middle School - 6th Grade
Bounce Treatment Services
Girl Scout Brownies Troop 1482
Rice University Gumball Challenge 2018 x /r/Garlicoin
Neighborhood House Charter School
Teespring
71 individual donor(s)