Project Status



Project Type:  Protected Spring

Regional Program: Western Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 100 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Oct 2022

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 02/03/2024

Project Features


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Nathan Chimoi Spring is open to all forms of contamination, but the most concerning one is the fertilizer from the surrounding sugarcane farms. Many of the 100 community members here experience regular health issues from drinking the water here.

But, unfortunately, they're used to sore throats and deadly illnesses from drinking dirty water. It's become part of their everyday life. So what they told us most about, understandably, is the time it takes to scoop up water from the spring every day, and the hours they waste waiting for others to finish.

"This water source serves many households even at its current condition," said Esther Litungu, a local farmer (pictured above at the spring). "You will never fail to find at least ten jerrycans [waiting] any time you visit the spring. For one to fill ten jerrycans, [it] takes about 30 minutes: an indication that time is much wasted at the spring collecting water."

"As one of the community members in this village, we have been taught to always respect and always give priority to our elders at all times," said young Shalleen M., pictured below filling a jerrycan. "This we also extend to the water point. [I] am forced to wait for my elders to first fetch water, [then I] am allowed to proceed with mine. This does waste much of my time."

A protected spring with a discharge pipe will alleviate these issues. Clean water will lessen the instances of water-related illness. A discharge pipe will decrease the time it takes people to fill a jerrycan. Stairs will make it easier for Shalleen's elders to fetch water and shorten the time she needs to wait. A new, reliable source of water will better everyone's lives in Kimang'eti.

What We Can Do:

Spring Protection

Protecting the spring will help provide access to cleaner and safer water and reduce the time people have to spend to fetch it. 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 a task predominantly carried out by women and young girls. Protecting the spring and offering training and support will, therefore, help empower the female members of the community by freeing up more of their time and energy to engage and invest in income-generating activities and their education.

Training on Health, Hygiene, COVID-19, and More

To hold trainings during the pandemic, we work closely with both community leaders and the local government to approve small groups to attend training. We ask community leaders to invite a select yet representative group of people to attend training who will then act as ambassadors to the rest of the community to share what they learn. We also communicate our expectations of physical distancing and wearing masks for all who choose to attend.

The training will focus on improved hygiene, health, and sanitation habits in this community. We will also have a dedicated session on COVID-19 symptoms, transmission routes, and prevention best practices.

With the community’s input, we will identify key leverage points where they can alter their practices at the personal, household, and community levels to affect change. This training will help to ensure participants have the knowledge they need about healthy practices and their importance to make the most of their water point as soon as water is flowing.

Our team of facilitators will use a variety of methods to train community members. Some of these methods include participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation, asset-based community development, group discussions, handouts, and demonstrations at the spring.

One of the most important issues 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 is consumed. We and the community strongly believe that all of these components will work together to improve living standards here, which will help to unlock the potential for these community members to live better, healthier lives.

We will then conduct a small series of follow-up trainings before transitioning to our regularly scheduled support visits throughout the year.

Training will result in the formation of a water user committee, elected by their peers, that will oversee the operations and maintenance of the spring. The committee 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 channels. The fence will keep out destructive animals and unwanted waste, and the drainage will keep the area’s mosquito population at a minimum.

Project Updates


October, 2022: Kimang'eti Community Spring Protection Complete!

Kimang'eti Community now has access to clean water! We transformed Nathan Chimoi Spring into a flowing source of naturally filtered water thanks to your donation. Our team also trained the community on improved sanitation and hygiene practices. Together, these components will unlock the opportunity for community members to live better, healthier lives.

"It will definitely positively impact my life," said businesswoman Doris Mmboya. "I’m foreseeing cases of reduced water-related infections like sore throats and such. With a 20-liter container getting filled in less than 20 seconds, I’ll also save on time previously spent on scooping water to fill a container."

Doris fetches water from the new spring.

"This will help me achieve good hygiene and sanitation for me and my family," Doris continued. "I’m confident it will also help me devote my time to other things, like bringing up my children and my small business in the market."

Children were just as excited as adults about the new waterpoint.

"Safe, clean, and reliable water will definitely improve my hygiene and sanitation levels," said 14-year-old Shalleen M.

Shalleen (the second from the right in the black shirt) waves at the spring with other ladies from the community (including Doris on the left!).

"Now, with the protected spring discharging at a faster rate, the queues at the water point will be a thing of the past," Shalleen continued. "Having made fetching water simpler and faster, much of the time I have been spending fetching water will be redirected to playing with my friends, going to church, and helping out my parents in the farm or with the household chores."

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 rocks to break them down into gravel. Because people have to carry most items by hand, the material-collection process can take anywhere from a few weeks to months.

When the community was ready, we sent a lorry to deliver the remaining construction materials, including cement, plastic tarps, and hardware. Then, our construction 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

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

To ensure community members could still access water throughout the construction process, we also dug temporary channels from the spring's eye around the construction site. This allowed water to flow without disrupting community members' tasks or the construction work. Excavation created space for setting the spring's foundation, made of thick plastic tarp, wire mesh, concrete, and waterproof cement.

After establishing the base, we started brickwork to build the headwall, wing walls, and stairs. Once the walls had grown tall enough, we began one of the most crucial steps: setting the discharge pipe. The discharge pipe needs to be positioned low enough in the headwall so the water level never rises above the spring's eye, yet high enough to allow room for the average jerrycan (a 20-liter container) to sit beneath the pipe without making contact.

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

In coordination with brickwork, we pitched stones on both sides of the spring's drainage channel. We then cemented and plastered each stone, forming the rub walls. These walls discourage people and animals from standing in that area, which could cause soil erosion and a clogged drainage area.

We then cemented and plastered 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 cured, 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 beautifying the spring and facilitating easy cleaning of the spring floor.

The final stage of construction is backfilling the reservoir box behind the discharge pipe. We cleared the collection box of any debris that may have fallen during construction. 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 water through the discharge pipe only.

We filled up the reservoir area with the large, clean stones community members had gathered, arranging them in layers like a well-fitting puzzle. We covered the rocks with a thick plastic tarp to minimize potential contamination sources, then piled enough dirt on top to compensate for future settling.

Community members transplanted grass onto the backfilled soil to help prevent erosion. Finally, the collection area was fenced to discourage any person or animal from walking on it. 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 the spring was ready, people got the okay from their local field officers to fetch water.

We officially handed over the spring to mark the community's ownership of the water point. Happiness, thanksgiving, and appreciation were the order of the day, flowing in all directions. Afterward, community members invited our staff members and artisans to dinner at one of the members' households as a thanks for all their hard work.

A staff member trains community members on how to care for the spring.

Training on Health, Hygiene, and More

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 representative group of community members to attend training and relay the information learned to the rest of their family and friends.

When the day arrived, facilitators Patience Njeri and Elvis Afuya deployed to the site to lead the event. 10 people attended the training, including seven women and three men. Normally, we would have had more attendees, but a political aspirant had a rally nearby, and one of the community elders' funerals was the same day. However, those present promised to relay the information to the rest of the community.

We covered several topics, including community participation in the project, leadership and governance, personal and environmental hygiene, water handling and treatment, spring maintenance, dental hygiene, the ten steps of handwashing, disease prevention, and how to make and use handwashing stations.

During the leadership and governance session, we held an election for the newly formed water user committee leaders, who will oversee the maintenance of the spring. We also brainstormed income-generating activities. Community members can now start a group savings account for any future minor repairs to the spring and a cooperative lending group, enabling them to develop small businesses.

Soap-making was the participants' favorite topic. Due to inflated prices in Kenya at the moment, participants had been finding it hard to buy soap. Knowing that they could make their own soap using easy-to-find ingredients lifted that burden from their shoulders. Doris even noted the lesson as a business opportunity.

"This training was very informative," Doris said. "I have learned a number of things regarding hygiene and sanitation, which will help me improve the hygiene and sanitation standards of my household. More importantly, I have learned how to make soap, something I will consider incorporating into my small-scale enterprise."

Another subject that provoked a lot of discussion was personal hygiene. The training facilitators were grateful for the community members' honesty on this subject, with some confessing that the water crisis meant they didn't bathe even after a long day of manual labor because fetching water seemed too daunting. Others said that they have never owned a toothbrush in their lives.

Conclusion

This project required a substantial collaboration between our staff, our in-country teams, and the community members themselves. When an issue arises concerning the spring, 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 their local field officers to assist them.

Also, we will continue to offer them unmatchable support as a part of our monitoring and maintenance program. We walk with each community, problem-solving together when they face challenges with functionality, seasonality, or water quality. Together, all these components help us strive for enduring access to reliable, clean, and safe water for this community.

With your contribution, one more piece has been added to a large puzzle of water projects. In our target areas, we’re working toward complete coverage of reliable, maintained water sources within a 30-minute round trip for each community, household, school, and health center. With this in mind, search through our upcoming projects to see which community you can help next!

Thank you for making all of this possible!




August, 2022: Kimang'eti Community Spring Protection Underway!

A severe clean water shortage in Kimang'eti Community drains people’s time, energy, and health. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install a clean water point and much more.

Get to know this community through the introduction 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!


A Year Later: "My dream has come through..."

November, 2023

A year ago, your generous donation helped the Kimang’eti Community in Kenya access clean water – creating a life-changing moment for Benjamin. Thank you!

Keeping The Water Promise

There's an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water in Kimang'eti Community 2.

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Kimang'eti Community 2 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!

Benjamin S, 12, recalled what life was like in the Kimang'eti Community before his community's spring was protected last year.

"Before, our parents were not allowing us to fetch water in this water point because it was so dangerous for children like us since we used [to] draw water using a jug and the spring discharges highly. Lastly, water was not safe for drinking, which led to water-related ailments," said Benjamin.

Collecting water is now much safer for Benjamin and the other community members in the Kimang'eti Community.

"Since the spring was protected, I have never been affected by water-related diseases. This has impacted my life positively because nowadays I have never missed school because of waterborne diseases, which has helped me achieve in academic performance," continued Benjamin.

Having ready access to water from the spring has made a difference for Benjamin, allowing him a better education, as waterborne illnesses no longer waylay him.


Right now, there are others in neighboring communities that desperately need safe water access. Your support will immediately go to work to provide a clean water project - and we can't wait to introduce you to the next person you'll help.


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 Kimang'eti Community 2 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 Kimang'eti Community 2 – 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

Project Underwriter - TGB Caring with Crypto