The Musungu Community solely depends on an unprotected spring for its water supply. Unfortunately, this means that the 147 individuals living here have to endure long wait times to access contaminated water.
"The current water [source] affects me because [I] am being limited to draw water. During [the] daytime, there is a long queue at the spring," said farmer Margaret Khaleya, 52, shown below.
According to UNICEF, "For women, the opportunity costs of collecting water are high, with far reaching effects. It considerably shortens the time they have available to spend with their families, on child care, other household tasks, or even in leisure activities."
The everyday difficulty for people waiting in line only to collect water that will make you and your family sick is incredibly disheartening. To make matters worse, that isn't the only problem those who rely on this spring face.
Safety is a significant issue as well. Field Officer Mary Afandi states, "The environment around the unprotected spring is bushy, which is risky to humans because the snake[s] can bite you without knowing, especially when you come to draw water."
Fear is intertwined with water in this community—fear of sickness, fear of animal attacks, and fear of others.
12-year-old Sarah K., shown below, said, "I must wake up very early in the morning to go and draw water from the unprotected spring. This is risky for a girl as far as security is concerned."
Without a secure water source, people will continue to wait in lengthy queues, and women and girls will face safety risks while fetching water at odd hours. Moreover, waterborne diseases will continue to affect community members causing needless suffering.
By protecting the spring, the entire community will be able to access water without fear. The flow from the water spout will be faster, reducing wait times and eliminating the need for vulnerable populations to venture out at unsafe times.
The Proposed Solution, Determined Together...
At The Water Project, everyone has a part in conversations and solutions. We operate in transparency, believing it benefits everyone. We expect reliability from one another as well as our water solutions. Everyone involved makes this possible through hard work and dedication.
In a joint discovery process, community members determine their most advantageous water solution alongside our technical experts. Read more specifics about this solution on the What We're Building tab of this project page. Then, community members lend their support by collecting needed construction materials (sometimes for months ahead of time!), providing labor alongside our artisans, sheltering and feeding the builders, and supplying additional resources.
Water Access for Everyone
This water project is one piece in a large puzzle. In Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, we're working toward complete coverage of reliable, maintained water sources that guarantee public access now and in the future within a 30-minute round trip for each community, household, school, and health center. One day, we hope to report that this has been achieved!
Training on Health, Hygiene & More
With the community's input, we've identified topics where training will increase positive health outcomes at personal, household, and community levels. We'll coordinate with them to find the best training date. Some examples of what we train communities on are:
- Improved hygiene, health, and sanitation habits
- Safe water handling, storage & treatment
- Disease prevention and proper handwashing
- Income-generation
- Community leadership, governance, & election of a water committee
- Operation and maintenance of the water point
Chlorine Dispensers
Installing chlorine dispensers is an important piece of our spring protection projects. Protecting a spring provides community members with an improved water source, but it doesn’t prevent contamination once the water is collected and stored. For example, if the water is clean and the container is dirty, the water will become contaminated.
We ensure that each chlorine dispenser is filled with diluted chlorine on a consistent schedule so that people can add pre-measured drops to each container of water they collect. That way, community members can feel even more confident in the quality of their water.