The Water Project’s WaSH program in Western Kenya aims to access, protect, filter, and purify the abundant waters that are available through two seasonal rains, prevalent springs, high water tables, and deep aquifers in the region. Explore water projects in communities, schools, and churches in Western Kenya such as protected springs, rainwater catchment systems, and water wells. This program emphasizes the power of strategic geographical saturation of projects, effective hygiene and sanitation training, and relational networking between NGOs, health workers, local politicians, and educators.
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!
Rehabilitation Project
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/hand-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.
Local Leadership
Water projects don’t last long without the help of local leaders. They’re the ones who explain the situation on the ground to us (and our donors!) while also outlining our goals and intentions for the community members.
The Water Project identifies, supports, and partners with local organizations that share our vision of reliable, verifiable, and clean water. Together, we build lasting local solutions and undertake ongoing monitoring and resolution to ensure our solutions are still working years into the future.
Community Engagement
We engage the communities we work with at every step of a water project.
These interactions are rooted in relationship-building. We involve the community in implementation, set expectations for water point management, prepare community members for ongoing costs, and more. All of this happens before a water project is installed.
The people receiving a water project get a leading seat at the table. Every water project we implement requires negotiations with several interested parties. During this step and every other, we continuously try to embody our favorite ideals: reliability, relationship, and trust.
Chlorine Dispenser
We install uniquely engineered chlorine dispensers at all of our spring protection projects so community members can treat their water with a pre-measured dose of chlorine. Diluted chlorine is a regular part of water treatment, worldwide. The chlorine stays active for two to three days, ensuring water stays safe to use even when stored at home. Both the chlorine delivery and the maintenance of these dispensers are a part of our ongoing community support.
Sanitation Platform (SanPlat)
Easily made latrine slabs encourage household bathroom construction.
Proper hygiene and sanitation facilities go hand-in-hand with access to clean, reliable water.
A SanPlat is most literally the slab one would squat over when utilizing the bathroom.
The community chooses 5 households to receive SanPlats made on site under our training and guidance. The goal: seeing the need for safe latrines throughout their community, each household will be inspired to build their own.
Hygiene and Sanitation Training
For many communities, water is just the beginning. Living without water deprioritizes things that deplete water rations, like bathing, cleaning, and even handwashing. Also, in some cases, community members who couldn’t afford to go to school never learned topics usually covered in health classes. A steady water supply on its own won’t solve these issues, which is why we train the people in every community, school, and health center we provide with a water project.
Although we tailor the subjects we cover in each training to each region and community, there are some staples we always touch on: water handling and storage; personal and environmental hygiene; disease transmission; how to form and maintain a water user committee; and the operation/maintenance of the community’s new water project.
With each training, our goal is to empower communities to take back their personal health so growth and development can begin.
Monitoring and Resolution
Sub-Saharan Africa is littered with broken and abandoned wells installed by well-meaning people.
We love celebrating when a project is complete and a community has access to clean, safe water. However, reliability is the true measure of our impact.
Water can only transform lives if it’s always there. Water-fetchers need to know that when they visit one of our water points, there will always be water. Sometimes, it only takes one sip of dirty water to make someone sick, even if they’d been drinking clean water for months beforehand.
This is why we measure our water projects’ downtime in hours, not days or weeks. Each hour is critical to someone’s life, and each hour someone has to wait for clean water is another opportunity to go back to the rivers, swamps, and scoop holes they resorted to before our water project was installed. Our past water projects are just as important as what we tackle in the future.
The Water Project monitors all of our water projects to make sure water service continues. To learn more about how you can help with ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and resolution, read about The Water Promise: a group of amazing, world-changing monthly donors who understand the power of keeping water flowing long after the installation is done.
Project Timeline FAQ
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.
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Report Submitted by Joan Were, Field Officer
Joan is thankful for the ability to work with communities who pour out their hearts in support and appreciation during the entire process of a water project. She was born and raised in Western Kenya and enjoys the opportunity to connect closely to people living in her home region by working to improve their access to safe water.
Joan has been a Field Officer since 2017, with WeWaSaFo, The Water Project's trusted partner in our Western Kenya WaSH Program.
A group of field officers was moving around in Malava Constituency looking for viable springs for protection when they came across Timona Spring. The discharge of the spring was very impressive, serving approximately 322 people.
The current water source is contaminated because community members farm close to the spring. The community members say that they get recurrent cases of typhoid. The children in the community often complain of stomachache and are prone to diarrhea.
"Most people in our community complain about stomach aches and do not go for check-ups, whereby they do not know whether it is typhoid affecting them," Mrs. Lilian Sunguti said.
Women like Mrs. Sunguti go to the river with a jug which they use to fill their 20-liter jerrycans and buckets. They scoop water from a pool made by the spring. The water is stored at home in the same containers which are used to fetch it.
The community tried to reach the local government to help them protect their spring but was only given false hope. They were a little bit skeptical about how genuine our organization is but after assuring them through examples of the springs we had protected before, they agreed to start sourcing for locally available materials immediately.
Being subsistence farmers, the community members wake up early to attend to their small farms. They use crops from their farms like vegetables, maize, and beans to feed their families.
The surplus is taken to the nearby shopping center for sale. Most people are poor and there is a high rate of primary school dropouts who lack school fees to go to high school.
Fewer than half of households in the community have latrines. Most of those that exist do not have a washable slab and some of the holes are so small that the children have a hard time using the facilities.
Most people dispose of their garbage in the kitchen gardens. Some throw nylon papers in the pit latrines.
They were very curious about the sanitation and hygiene training we provide and promised to spread the message far and wide so that everyone in the community will benefit from it.
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 have the knowledge they need 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 the handling, storage, and treatment of water. Having a clean water source will be extremely helpful, but it is useless if water gets contaminated by the time it’s consumed. Hand-washing will also be a big topic.
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. With the community’s high involvement in the process, there should be a good sense of responsibility and ownership for the new clean water source.
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
December, 2020: Through Their Eyes: COVID-19 Chronicles with Gladys Temba
This post is part of a new series by The Water Project meant to highlight the perspectives and experiences of the people we serve and how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting them. We invite you to read more of their stories here.
Our team recently visited Luvambo to conduct a COVID-19 prevention training (read more about it below!) and monitor their water point, Timona Spring. Shortly after, we returned to check in on the community, offer a COVID-19 refresher training, and ask how the pandemic is affecting their lives.
It was during this most recent visit that Gladys Temba shared her story of how the coronavirus is impacting her life and her community. A strong proponent of clean water, Gladys serves as the elected Treasurer of the spring's water user committee.
Gladys is a 38-year-old farmer, mother, and business owner in Luvambo. Before the pandemic, she baked and sold scones to earn a living. Now, she is stuck at home with reduced work while trying to manage her children, who are also home due to Kenya's national school closures since March.
Gladys at home next to her cows, which she had just given a fresh drink of water from the spring
Field Officer Lillian Achieng' met Gladys outside her his home to conduct the interview. Both Lillian and Gladys observed physical distancing and other precautions throughout the visit to ensure their health and safety. The following is Gladys' story, in her own words.
What is one thing that has changed in your community since the completion of the water project?
"Unity among community members has improved since the construction of the spring brought people together during the collection of locally available materials. The community members have much trust in non-governmental organizations - more than the government."
How has having a clean water point helped you through the pandemic so far?
"Having this clean water has enabled us to wash our hands all through this pandemic. The water is plenty and clean."
Gladys washes her hands at home using water from the spring
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Kenya, has fetching water changed for you because of restrictions, new rules, or your concerns about the virus?
"Fetching water hasn't changed because our spring is high yielding and so we don't crowd at the spring. Everyone gets enough time to fetch water. The fear of getting infected with COVID-19 is not high here since many people have chosen to stay at home and this helps one not to mingle with people while fetching water. Few people are at the spring."
Gladys at the spring
How has COVID-19 impacted your family?
"COVID-19 has affected my business. I used to bake scones and had so many buyers, but since the pandemic started, my customers have reduced. Business is not as good as before."
"My children are at home since schools were closed due to COVID-19. It's hard to monitor these children while at home and so you find them roaming aimlessly in the village, thus endangering their lives. We no longer receive visitors and relatives like before for the fear of getting infected with COVID-19."
Gladys with her children at home
What other challenges are you experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
"Transportation has become a challenge. The public means we use for transport have become expensive since one has to pay double the transport charges. This is because the vehicles have been instructed to only carry a few passengers."
What hygiene and sanitation steps have you and your community taken to stop the spread of the virus?
"The community members have wholeheartedly embraced the practice of wearing masks. We also ensure that we wash our hands regularly and also avoid crowded places."
Masked up
Like most governments around the world, the Kenyan government continues to set and adjust restrictions both nationally and regionally to help control the spread of the virus.
What restriction were you most excited to see lifted already?
"I was happy when they allowed us to go back to church and worship."
What restriction are you still looking forward to being lifted?
"I am hoping they can allow every age to attend the church services. At the moment, only those aged six years or older are allowed. Our children are missing Sunday school lessons."
Gladys answers questions while Field Officer Lillian (left) records her answers through a mobile survey at the spring.
What has been the most valuable part of the COVID-19 sensitization training you received from our team?
"I have been able to make masks for my family members and also I learned the correct way of washing hands."
May, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Luvambo Community, Timona 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. 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 Luvambo, Kenya.
We trained more than 19 people on the symptoms, transmission routes, and prevention of COVID-19. Before there were any reported cases in the area, we worked with trusted community leaders and the Water User Committee to gather community members for the training. 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. 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.
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.
October, 2019: Giving Update: Luvambo Community, Timona Spring
A year ago, your generous donation helped Luvambo Community in Kenya access clean water.
There’s an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water at Timona Spring in Luvambo. Month after month, their giving supports ongoing sustainability programs that help this community maintain access to safe, reliable water. Read more…
October, 2018: Luvambo Community Project Complete
Luvambo Community is celebrating their new protected spring, so celebrate with them! Timona Spring has been transformed into a flowing source of 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.
Spring Protection
Water is at the base of the economic growth pyramid. This statement couldn't be truer for Luvambo Community.
When we visited the spring to check on construction, we used a route different than our normal one. As we approached Mrs. Eunice Mdogo's homestead, we were welcomed with the sweet aroma of "African shortcake." These are snacks similar to our famous 'maandazi' (a food similar to fried dough in the U.S.), but they are denser.
We followed the aroma like hound dogs and found two smoking, mud-walled kitchens filled with young men. They had large basins full of dough and a hot fireplace filled with lava-hot cooking oil. These young men make a living preparing shortcake. They pack them in crates and supply them wholesale to the entire county, using their motorbikes.
They expressed to their delight and appreciation for protecting Timona Spring because it will keep their business stable throughout the year. They went further to inform us that all the water from the nearby hand-dug wells would dry up when the rain would subside. As a result, then they would have to travel a long distance to access clean water to use for making their dough. This clean water shortage used to waste their time and negatively affect their business.
With the newly protected spring, these young and industrious men will keep their business running throughout the year!
They are also happy to have plenty of clean drinking water, since they need to avoid dehydration in such a hot kitchen.
Construction Process:
Community members provided all locally available construction materials, e.g bricks, wheelbarrows of clean sand, wheelbarrows of ballast, fencing poles and gravel. Community members also hosted our artisans for the duration of construction.
The spring area was excavated with jembes, hoes, and spades 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.
Building the brick headwall
As the wing walls and headwall cured, 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.
Working on the stairs
The source area was filled up with clean stones and sand and covered with a polyethylene membrane to eliminate any potential sources of contamination.
The concrete dried over the course of five days. With this spring now handed over to the community, we will continue to follow up with the water user committee to make sure everything runs smoothly.
"I'm truly witnessing a miracle. We have been having safe water shortage for decades. Most of the people invested in hand-dug wells that dry up due to the low water table," said Gladys Tembo.
"We are now happy and settled in our minds knowing that water is the least of our problems."
Sanitation Platforms
All five sanitation platforms have been installed and make wonderful, easy to clean latrine floors. These five families are happy about this milestone of having a latrine of their own. We are continuing to encourage families to finish building walls and roofs over their new latrine floors.
New Knowledge
Mrs. Lilian Akoth was very instrumental in passing our important message about hygiene and sanitation training to every household. She deliberately visited each homestead to inform them, as well as encourage and motivate them to attend.
Attendance was not as expected because many community members were preparing to hold a funeral. The Luhya tribe really values such events, and a few people feared to attend training lest rumors start about them having had something to do with this person's death.
13 participants sat in the shade of mango trees, ready to learn new things.
We covered several topics including but not limited to leadership and governance (participants started a water and sanitation committee); 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, and hygiene promotion. These participants will become ambassadors of healthy living among their own families and their greater community.
When the facilitator was talking about handwashing, she asked participants if any of them had a place to wash their hands back home. One of them responded that she indeed owned one, which she had cleverly made for herself. We tasked her with the responsibility of demonstrating to the rest of the participants how to make one. She immediately regretted piping up since everyone was then looking to her to teach them, but our team stepped up and worked alongside her to demonstrate how to build a handwashing station.
Our brave volunteer explaining how she constructed a handwashing station for her family.
When everyone saw how easy it was to fix a container so that it works well for handwashing, they all promised to have one by our next visit.
"This training will help our entire community to lead healthier lives. We are very willing and able to disseminate all that we have learned because we now know that one person can compromise the health of the entire community," Rhoda Makokha said.
August, 2018: Luvambo Community Project Underway
Dirty water from Timona Spring is making people in Luvambo 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 Videos
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: Luvambo Community, Timona Spring
October, 2019
A year ago, your generous donation helped Luvambo Community in Kenya access clean water – creating a life-changing moment for Tabitha Sunguti. Thank you!
Keeping The Water Promise
There's an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water in Luvambo Community 3.
This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Luvambo Community 3 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!
Stepping into the Luvambo community near Timona Spring, you are welcomed by a clean environment. The area is very green, in part due to the fields of sugarcane and maize blanketing the area. Sanitation in the area has improved as evidenced by the dishracks, clotheslines, and tippy taps for handwashing placed next to families' pit latrines that we observed as we walked through the village and visited different households.
Ever since its protection last year, drawing water from Timona Spring for community members in Luvambo has been made easy as they need only place their containers under the discharge pipe and within no time the container is full Before the spring was protected, every time people went to fetch water from Timona Spring, they had to carry smaller container for filling the bigger one by scooping water from the open source. This was a time-consuming process that easily dirtied the water while collecting it.
Madam Mercy Anyango, a water user we interviewed at Timona Spring on our most recent visit, could not hide her joy about the project. Mercy explained how happy she was because she no longer has to wake up early in the morning just to go and collect water. Initially, water collected early in the morning was considered safest for drinking because it was less muddied and disturbed than later in the day. But now, safe water is drawn at one's convenience without compromising its quality.
Madam Anyango with her baby and Field Officer Wilson Kipchoge at the spring
"Drawing water from this water source after implementation is very enjoyable to us and we are so happy because we no longer dirty [the] water in [the] process. More so, the waterborne diseases reported earlier and the tortoise which had invaded the spring together with frogs have been curbed through the construction of this spring. We are very thankful for...our spring for protection," added Mercy.
12-year-old Tabitha Sunguti also shared her thoughts on how this project has impacted her life as a young girl often responsible for fetching water for her and her family's needs.
"The spring has really helped us get access to safe, clean water. The firewood we fetch is now only for cooking, unlike before where a lot of firewood could be used in boiling water for drinking keeping in mind that firewood is currently a precious thing. Besides that, we do save time when fetching water from this water source which has enabled us [to] help our parents in other household chores."
Tabitha smiles 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 Luvambo Community 3 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 Luvambo Community 3 – 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.
Rehabilitation Project
