Project Status



Project Type:  Protected Spring

Regional Program: Western Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 100 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Feb 2019

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 02/02/2024

Project Features


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Community Profile

Report Submitted by
Wilson Kipchoge, Project Officer

In the village of Koloch there are 100 people who live and work and do family life together.  They have small-scale tea plantations, small banana farms and also grow vegetables and cereals of all kinds which are dried and stored for future use or taken to nearby markets to be sold so as to get money to buy other items which cannot be produced from the farms.

Water

During our visit to a school called Kosiage Primary School, one of the teachers invited us to visit Solomon Pendi Spring and give any advice as to how to turn it into a safe and reliable clean water source. It is the only source of water for this village. On arrival, the spring was found to be totally open to all kinds of contamination from nearby farms, homes, and latrines. Villagers even wash their hands in it and then scoop up water into pitchers to take home for cooking, washing, and drinking.

This community is constantly weak to waterborne diseases like cholera and typhoid.

Sanitation

Most people in Koloch use latrines, but some of these are almost full and give off a bad odor. All are crudely built and are often unsafe to use because of rotting wooden floors. But we see a good effort here: Many families in this village use dish-drying racks and clotheslines. Some even have improvised tippy-taps (handwashing stations) near their latrines!

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. Handwashing 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.

Project Updates


June, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Koloch Community, Solomon Pendi 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 Jacky shows how to make a leaky tin handwashing station

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 Koloch, Kenya.

We trained more than 9 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.

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.

Homemade mask tutorial

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.

Reviewing the prevention reminders chart

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.




October, 2019: Giving Update: Koloch Community, Solomon Pendi Spring

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

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




February, 2019: Koloch Community, Solomon Pendi Spring Project Complete

Koloch Community is celebrating their new protected spring, so celebrate with them! Solomon Pendi Spring has been transformed into a flowing, safe 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

Construction at Solomon Pendi Spring was successful and water is now flowing from the discharge pipe.

"For sure, things change within no time such as this! It was only the other day when I fetched water from the unprotected water source and today I am able to access water from the pipe. We shall maintain high standards of hygiene as well as secure this water point for our grandchildren," said Mrs. Bitok.

The Process:

Community members provided all locally available construction materials, e.g bricks, wheelbarrows of clean sand, wheelbarrows of ballast, 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.

A little boy fetches water while the artisan excavates for the spring 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 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.

Plastering the brick

The source area was filled up with clean stones and sand and covered with a polyethylene membrane to eliminate any potential sources of contamination.

Protecting the area behind the discharge pipe

The concrete dried over the course of five days. The community has planted grass along the water catchment point to prevent erosion, and they are also planning to fence the area so as to protect the water source from interference by people and animals. On the other hand, the community is in the process of forming a self-help group so that they can start undertaking income-generation activities.

With this spring now handed over to the community, we will continue to follow up with the water committee to make sure everything runs smoothly.

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

We planned for hygiene and sanitation training with the assistance of Mr. Vitinyu,  our contact person who led the entire community through this project. We called him to set a date and time for training. He went ahead and informed other community members about the same.

The attendees participated actively throughout the training sessions. Women were especially interested when compared to the men, wanting to learn how to prevent illnesses from which their children regularly suffer.

Participants received notebooks and pens to write down what they learned

Several topics were covered during the training, such as personal and environmental hygiene, common local diseases and their prevention, and care of the water point. The ten steps of handwashing were demonstrated, along with demonstrations for dental hygiene and water treatment.

Handwashing demonstration with volunteers

"I am now a very old man nearing my retirement and I have not known how to wash my hands. This training has really taught us a lot on why hygiene should be taken very seriously to eliminate hygiene-related diseases," said Mr. Vitinyu.

"From today onwards, our attitude towards hygiene has changed and we shall ensure that every member of our village and neighbors adapt the same for a healthy society."




January, 2019: Koloch Community Project Underway

Dirty water from Solomon Pendi Spring is making people in Koloch Community sick. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to build a clean water point and much more.

Get to know this 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!


Giving Update: Koloch Community, Solomon Pendi Spring

October, 2019

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

Keeping The Water Promise

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

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Koloch Community 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 following reflection comes from Field Officer Wilson Kipchoge after his most recent visit to Solomon Pendi Spring in Koloch. There, he checked up on the spring and interviewed community members for their thoughts on the project's impact in its first year since completion.

"The lives of community members of this spring have greatly improved, especially in terms of accessing safe clean drinking water which was really a very big problem to them in the past. The entry of [our team] to this community has [let] people enjoy consuming safe water from the protected spring as well as improved sanitation through the provision of 5 sanitation platforms which were given to them. Also, hygiene practices like handwashing are well observed as people have improvised leaky tins near the latrines."

"This group really embraced the project and have since demonstrated this through their commitment to take great care of it which was evident by the cleanliness of the spring. The chairperson maintained that if anyone is found violating the set rules governing the spring, community members will be informed before taking any action. The water is very clean, free from smell and particles, thus making [it] safe for consumption. The areas around the spring and near the compounds are very clean and well endowed with green vegetation making the area look attractive and pleasant to live in."

Chair of the water committee David Vidinyu is Chair of the water committee and was happy to welcome Field Officer Wilson back into the community. David spent time with Wilson both at the spring and back at his homestead, where he showed off the beautifully constructed structure he has built over the sanitation platform he received last year to finish his home's new latrine. He also had a tippy tap directly outside the latrine doors.

David Vidinyu in front of his latrine and tippy tap at home

"[I] am happy to say that since this project was done in our village last year, we are very much comfortable drinking safe and clean water from this beautifully constructed spring," David said.

"Previously, we could suffer a lot trying to access water from our spring which was very open to contamination, especially [from] animals drinking from the source [and] people washing...Many people have also embraced the idea of having a portable [latrine] slab which is being used by the beneficiaries."

Tom Musa at the spring

13-year-old Tom Musa shared his perspective on how the spring brings him not only water, but confidence in his health too.

"Since this spring was done, I nowadays stay confident knowing that there is water flowing through the pipe for me to fetch. Diseases that were reported previously are no more because we now have safe clean drinking water free from contamination," he said.

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 Koloch Community 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 Koloch Community – 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.


Contributors

Twincrest, Inc.
Mudd Print & Promo
Mountain Creek Baptist Church
Faith Chapel
9 individual donor(s)