January, 2021: Mukhweso Community, Shemema Spring Project Complete!

Mukhweso Community now has access to clean water! We transformed Shemema Spring into a flowing water source with a whopping three discharge pipes, thanks to your donation. Our team protected the spring, constructed five sanitation platforms for different households in the community, and trained the community on improved sanitation and hygiene practices, including COVID-19 prevention.

"I am so glad because my villagers and I are going to enjoy safe water for drinking, which will make us healthy and enable us to continue with our daily activities without any problem. I will be able to do farming of vegetables now that I have enough and reliable water, and also hold meetings of my community members easily," said Pius Shemema, the village elder.

Children were just as excited as the adults about the new water point.

"I will be able to drink water with confidence because it's now clean and safe, free from infections. I will be able to concentrate on my studies when we go back to school and work hard to achieve my dream of being a doctor," said primary school student Esther.

Preparing for Spring Protection

Community members worked together to source and carry all locally available construction materials to the spring. These included bricks, sand, stones, and fencing poles. Some people also chiseled away at large stones to break them down into gravel. Because people have to carry most items by hand, the materials collection process can take anywhere from a few weeks to months.

When everything was prepared, we sent a lorry to the community to deliver the rest of the construction materials, including the cement, plastic tarps, and hardware. Then, our artisan and field officers deployed to the spring to begin work. Individual households provided meals throughout each day to sustain the work team.

From Open Source to Protected Spring: A Step-by-Step Process

At last, it was time to dig in at the spring! Women and men lent their strength to the artisan each day to help with the manual labor. This community demonstrated a particularly high commitment to this project, coming together each day in teamwork and good faith to work on the project.

First, we cleared and excavated the spring area. We dug a drainage channel below the spring and several surface runoff diversion channels above and around the spring. These help to divert environmental contaminants carried by the rains away from the spring.

To ensure community members could still fetch water throughout the construction process, we also dug temporary diversion channels from the spring’s eye around the construction site. This allowed water to flow without severely disrupting community members’ water needs or construction work.

Excavation created space for setting the spring’s foundation made of thick plastic tarp, wire mesh, concrete, and waterproof cement. After setting the base, we started brickwork to build the headwall, wing walls, and stairs.

Next, we began one of the most crucial spring protection steps to ensure a fully functional water point: setting the discharge pipe. Shemema Spring's natural yield was so high that we installed three discharge pipes instead of the typical one to improve community members' access to clean water.

The discharge pipes have to be low enough in the headwall so that the water level inside never rises above the spring’s eye, yet high enough to leave eighteen to twenty inches between the pipes and the spring floor to allow room for the average jerrycan (a 20-liter container) to sit beneath the pipes without making contact.

If the discharge pipes were placed too high above the spring’s eye, too much backpressure could force the flow to emerge elsewhere. Too low, and community members would not be able to access the water easily. We embedded the pipes using clay (or mortar when the clay is in short supply) and placed it at a slight incline to ensure water flows in the right direction.

In coordination with brickwork, we pitched medium to large stones on both sides of the spring’s drainage channel. We then cemented and plastered each stone group into place, forming the rub walls. These help to discourage people and animals from trying to stand on that area, which could cause soil erosion and thus a clogged drainage area.

With brickwork and stone pitching completed, we turned to cementing and plastering both sides of the headwall and wing walls. These finishing layers reinforce the brickwork and prevent water in the reservoir from seeping through the walls. In turn, enough pressure builds in the reservoir box to push water out through the discharge pipe.

As the headwall and wing walls were curing, we cemented and plastered the stairs and installed four tiles beneath the discharge pipe. The tiles protect the concrete from the falling water's erosive force while also beautifying the spring and facilitating easy cleaning of the spring floor.

We transitioned to the final stages of construction with the tiles in place - backfilling the reservoir box. First, we cleared the collection box of any debris that may have fallen in since its construction, such as dead leaves or other items. Then we redirected the temporary diversion channels back into the reservoir box, channeling water into this area for the first time. We closed off all of the other exits to start forcing the water through the discharge pipes only.

With much help from the community, we filled up the reservoir area with the clean and large stones they gathered, arranging them in layers like a well-fitting puzzle. We covered the stones with a thick plastic tarp to minimize potential contamination sources from aboveground, followed by a layer of soil. We piled enough soil on top to create a slight mound to compensate for the backfill’s future settlement.

Community members transplanted grass onto the backfilled soil to help prevent erosion. Finally, the collection area was fenced in to discourage any person or animal from walking on it since compaction can lead to disturbances in the backfill layers and potentially compromise water quality.

The entire construction process took about two weeks of work and patience to allow the cement and plaster to finish curing. As soon as it was ready, people got the okay from our field officers to fetch water. Lead Field Officer for the project Jacqueyu Kangu officially handed over the spring to the community members directly the following training to mark the water point's ownership. Community members celebrated by dancing and singing songs praising God and all who helped make the spring's protection a reality.

Sanitation Platforms

We completed all five sanitation platforms and handed them over to their new owners. 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, and for other families to replicate the design after having helped construct these examples.

Training on Health, Hygiene, COVID-19 and More

Due to the ongoing challenges and restrictions amidst the pandemic, we worked with both local leaders and the national Ministry of Health to gain approval for a small group training about health, hygiene, and COVID-19 prevention.

Together with the community, we found their preferred date for training while considering other community calendar events such as the agricultural season and social events. We requested a select yet representative group of community members to attend training, relaying the information learned to the rest of their family and friends. When the day arrived, Team Leader Emmah Nambuye deployed to the site with a team of trainers to lead the event.

29 people attended training, including local leaders and the area's Community Health Volunteer. We held the training at Mr. Shemema's home, which is only about twenty meters away from the spring. This was conducive to the training sessions requiring water and the ones on-site at the spring. His homestead also had enough space for everyone to spread out to observe physical distancing. We did expect more people to attend, but as it happened, some community members were attending a burial that day.

Perhaps the most important topic of the day was our session on COVID-19 prevention. There has been considerable tension and panic about the novel coronavirus throughout Kenya, so this was a session everyone eagerly participated in, the trainers noted.

We covered crucial COVID-19 prevention topics including:

- Information on the symptoms and transmission routes of COVID-19;

- What physical distancing is and how to practice it;

- How to cough and sneeze into the elbow;

- Contactless greetings; and

- How to make and properly wear a facemask.

Due to the rampant spread of misinformation about COVID-19, we dedicated time to a question and answer session to help debunk rumors about the disease and provide extra information where needed. We also left behind a rice sack painted with messages of COVID-19 prevention reminders in the local language. We affixed the sign to the spring's fence during training and encouraged community members to use it as a daily reminder to stay cautious both at home and at the spring.

"Through the training, I have learned more ways of preventing the COVID-19 infection, such as washing hands regularly with soap and running water for 20 seconds and seeking medical attention in case I feel unwell. This new knowledge will help me to live a COVID-19 free life and even educate others, including my customers," said Mevis Achieng', a hairdresser in the community.

Mevis added that while she was already washing hands, avoiding crowded places, and observing physical distancing, she would be taking even more precautionary steps with the knowledge gained at training. These included "mask-making and wearing in all public places, and washing hands regularly with soap and running water for 20 seconds, including before and after drawing water at the water point."

We covered several other topics, including community participation in the project; leadership and governance; personal and environmental hygiene; water handling and treatment; operation and maintenance of the spring and sanitation platforms; dental hygiene; the ten steps of handwashing, and how to make and use a tippy tap and leaky tin. We held an election for the newly formed water user committee leaders during the leadership and governance session.

We also brainstormed income-generating activities that can be used to start both a community savings account for any future minor repairs to the spring and a cooperative lending group to enable members to develop their own small businesses. This session ended up overlapping with the leadership and governance training, in which the community members suggested they contribute 50 Kenyan Shilling (~46 cents) each month per household that uses the spring. These funds would go toward any minor repairs that might arise at the spring and eventually help the group carry out income-generating activities of their choice.

The most memorable topic was primary health care. This is because most community members confessed they did not previously have information about the importance of washing beddings every day for their children who wet their beds at night. Some said their children had had skin infections for a long time without responding to medication, but now they knew why. With water availability from the protected spring, they'll ensure to adhere to the information and be agents for improved hygiene and sanitation in the entire community.

"I learned a lot concerning hygiene, which involved personal, food, and environmental hygiene. This new knowledge will help me live healthy together with my family members and improve our economic status," said Susan Andaya, who runs her own small business and whose peers elected her Secretary of the new water user committee.

When an issue arises concerning the water project, the water user committee is equipped with the necessary skills to rectify the problem and ensure the water point works appropriately. However, if the issue is beyond their capabilities, they can contact our field officers' team to assist them. We will also continue to offer them unmatchable support as a part of our ongoing monitoring and maintenance program.

Thank you for making all of this possible!

December, 2020: Mukhweso Community, Shemema Spring Project Underway!

Dirty water from Shemema Spring is making people in Mukhweso sick. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install 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 news of success!