Project Status



Project Type:  Protected Spring

Regional Program: Western Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 245 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Apr 2019

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 10/02/2024

Project Features


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It was a cold morning as we first journeyed to visit Asumani Spring in Bukhaywa. Once we arrived, it began to rain and wouldn't stop for several hours. Since this is the rainy season, we were prepared with an umbrella.

245 people rely on Asumani Spring to get water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. The water is extremely dirty. Community members piled sand, stones, and grass behind where the water flows to try and shield it from contamination. In between the stones they added a pipe to help them fill their containers. Unfortunately, the water still carries particles of dirt - especially during and after rainy weather.

Community members suffer from typhoid; coughs and stomachaches are constant after drinking the dirty water from Asumani Spring. A lot of money has been spent getting medication for treatment.

"Protecting of our spring will help us improve on treating waterborne diseases and spending a lot of money," said Roselyne.

This is a rural location and it is very peaceful. It is vegetated with maize, beans and various vegetables. Houses made of mud and grass are among these farms.

Farmers sell their produce to make a living, and some men own motorbikes that they have dedicated to taxiing. Men wake up and leave with their motorbikes immediately, while women stay back and get the kids ready for school. Once the children are off, any other adults will go to work on the farm.

What we can do:

Training

"Our people perish because of lack of knowledge. If we acquire knowledge on good hygiene practice, we will improve on hygiene," said Omari Tembla.

In this community, there are some people with dish racks and others with latrines. They clear out the brush from around their homes. However, their water containers were dirty and people admitted to not cleaning them often.

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

Less than half of the families using Asumani Spring have a private place to use the bathroom.

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

The community has done their best to get safe water, but they need the expertise and direction of artisans to get the job done right. They also need the proper tools and materials!

Properly protecting the spring will ensure that 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


May, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Bukhaywa Community, Asumani 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 Bukhaywa, Kenya.

We trained more than 15 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.

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.

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, 2019: Bukhaywa Community, Asumani Spring Project Complete

Bukhaywa Community is celebrating its new protected spring, so celebrate with them! Asumani 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 Asumani Spring was successful and water is now flowing from the discharge pipe.

The community members are very happy with the project. This is going to decrease waterborne diseases that were always the families here. Before the project, community members even tried to improvise a pipe for themselves and covered the source with mud and planted grass thinking that they were protecting their water from contamination. It was not successful and they continued to suffer for a very long time.

This was an answered prayer. The women we met at the spring said the money they have been spending treating their family members will be saved and used to do more productive things.

"Wow! At long last, our spring has been protected and we are now accessing clean and safe water for drinking," said Mr. Luteyo.

The Process:

The community members living around Asumani Spring were very active in the project and were always there to support the artisan. They worked as a team and assisted in bringing materials to the construction site. They also kept a close eye on the artisan's work and always made sure he had what he needed.

Mixing cement

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.

As the wing walls and headwall cured, the stairs were set and ceramic tiles were fixed directly below the discharge pipe.

Progress on the stairs while plastering the rest of the spring

The ceramic tiles installed under the discharge pipe protect the concrete from the erosive force of the falling water and beautify 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 concrete dried over the course of five days, during which a community member wetted the concrete to make sure it would dry without cracking. The source area was filled up with clean stones and sand and covered with a polyethylene membrane to eliminate any potential sources of contamination.

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 will continue to encourage them to finish building walls and roofs over their new latrine floors as we visit for monitoring and evaluation.

New Knowledge

Pastor Julius Shiamala was our main contact person in Bukhaywa. The day hardware materials were being transported to the site, we called and told him that training goes hand in hand with the project construction. He set a date for us and recruited community members to attend.

The attendance was more than what we expected because of the ongoing excitement about the spring protection. People said that this was an answered prayer after very many empty promises from different leaders.

The weather was sunny but that did not affect the training since the meeting point was in the shade at someone's home.

Participants learned about:

– Leadership and governance for the spring committee

Community members voted on people to head up a spring committee to oversee the management and maintenance of the spring.

– Management and maintenance of the spring

We talked about various ways that people can take care of their spring protection. Participants eagerly shared their own idea about this, too. They said the spring has to be fenced to stop animals from crossing through the area. They will make sure that the area is kept clean and they will not allow children to play there. Women will not stay at the spring to do their laundry but will carry the water back home.

The committee has scheduled a day for the community members to get together and build the protective fence around the spring.

– Family planning
– Waterborne and water-related disease, along with water treatment methods
– Personal hygiene, including handwashing

Participants learned that dunking hands in a bowl of water is not a good way to clean up, especially if the bowl is shared between multiple people. Instead, running water and soap need to be used each time.

– Dental hygiene

Participants seemed to get a kick out of seeing the trainer user a pink toothbrush!

Thank You for making all of this possible!




March, 2019: Bukhaywa Community, Asumani Spring Project Underway

Dirty water from Asumani Spring is making people in Bukhaywa 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 again with exciting news of clean water flowing here!




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: Bukhaywa Community, Asumani Spring

February, 2021

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

Keeping The Water Promise

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

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Bukhaywa 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 experience of getting water from this spring before protection was not good."

"Since the spring was open, all sorts of dirt, sand, and even soil were washed into the water."

"Drawing was also not easy as we had to step in the water as we drew it. This was always risky, especially for the small children."

"Now, wow! What a great experience."

"It's easy to fetch water now and even the children no longer fear going to the spring as it's accessible even after the rains."

Two kids give thumbs up 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 Bukhaywa 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 Bukhaywa 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

Imago Dei Community