Project Status



Project Type:  Protected Spring

Regional Program: Western Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 245 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Nov 2017

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 03/08/2024

Project Features


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Community Profile

This project is a part of our shared program with Western Water and Sanitation Forum (WEWASAFO). Our team is pleased to directly share the below report (edited for clarity, as needed).

Welcome to the Community

Women living in this part of Shikoti wake up around 6am to go look for enough water for drinking, cleaning, making bricks and other uses at home. In this community, the majority of people make bricks to sell and earn a living. When other neighboring communities are busy preparing the land for crops, these folks are busy forming and baking bricks. Their business is doing very well because many people are building their houses and even business in this area. They also plant sugarcane which they say gives them money to get their children an education.

Water Situation

A total of 245 individuals from 35 different households rely on Alunyoli Spring to meet their water needs.

Someone fixed a broken pipe at the spring eye to siphon water. The spring is open to contamination from surface runoff, wild animals, and many other sources. When we visited, we saw some dogs drink from the spring and noted children relieving themselves nearby.

After drinking water fetched from Alunyoli Spring, community members suffer from waterborne diseases like typhoid.

Sanitation Situation

Less than half of households have their own pit latrine. Those without a latrine share with their neighbor, while most children prefer the privacy of bushes to relieve themselves. Latrines are not safe for children and elderly who struggle to balance on wooden logs or slippery mud floors. Because of these poor conditions, open defecation puts the rest of the community at risk as contaminated waste is easily spread around the village.

There are only a few hand-washing stations, though none of them have soap.

Plans: Hygiene and Sanitation Training

Community members will attend hygiene and sanitation training for at least two days. This training will ensure participants are no longer ignorant 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.

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.

Plans: Sanitation Platforms

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

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 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.

Plans: Spring Protection

Protecting the spring will ensure that its water is safe, adequate and secure. Construction will keep surface runoff and other contaminants out of the water.

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 energy to engage and invest in income-generating activities.

38-year-old Diminah is one of the many who makes bricks day in and day out. She's been in the community for several years, and recounts "The politicians thought after promising us every now and then that they will protect our spring and they don't, nobody can come and do it. They will be in for a surprise if you protect it!"

Project Updates


June, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Alunyoli 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 Shikoti, Kenya.

We trained community members 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.

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.




November, 2018: A Year Later: Shikoti Community, Alunyoli Spring

A year ago, your generous donation enabled us to protect Alunyoli Spring for Shikoti Community in Kenya. The contributions of incredible monthly donors and others giving directly to The Water Promise allow our local teams to visit project sites throughout the year, strengthening relationships with communities and evaluating the water project over time. These consistent visits allow us to learn vital lessons and hear amazing stories. Read more...




November, 2017: Shikoti Community Project Complete

Alunyoli Spring in Shikoti Community, Kenya is now a protected, clean 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 given in sanitation and hygiene. Imagine the changes that all of these resources are going to bring for these residents! You made it happen!  Now, want to do a bit more? Join our team of monthly donors and help us maintain this spring protection and many other projects.

We just updated the project page with the latest pictures, so make sure to check them out! And please enjoy the rest of the report from our partner in Kenya:

Project Result: New Knowledge

We stopped by the community leading up to training to ensure that everyone was invited and prepare to attend. This was especially convenient, since we are monitoring another spring that is only two kilometers away.

Attendance was good, with many more men than women. This is because the men say that women should be most responsible for water, sanitation and hygiene in the home.

Participants pose for a group picture after training.

Two of our facilitators covered several topics, including leadership and governance; operation and maintenance of the spring; healthcare; family planning; immunizations; the spread of disease and prevention. We also covered water treatment methods, environmental hygiene, hygiene promotion, and many others.

Demonstrations were some of the most popular parts of the training, with participants enjoying getting their hands involved. We did this with hand-washing, teaching the 10 steps of washing with soap and running water. We also took participants to their spring, where construction had recently finished. There we were able to teach about proper spring use, management, and simple maintenance.

During our visits following training, it was evident that community members were taking what they learned seriously. Participants ensured that their own families have latrines, bathing rooms, and dish racks. They even went out to their neighbors to check whether or not they were building these facilities too.

Project Result: Sanitation Platforms

All five sanitation platforms have been installed and are ready for use. These five families are happy about this milestone and are optimistic that there will be much less open defecation. People without proper latrines would often use the privacy of bushes, but now have a private place of their own. It is expected that proper use of latrine facilities provided by the sanitation platforms will go a long way in reducing environmental pollution here. We are continuing to encourage families to finish building walls and roofs over their new latrine floors.

Beneficiaries gather around their new sanitation platform.

Project Result: Spring Protection

Community members provided all locally available construction materials, e.g bricks, wheelbarrows of clean sand, wheelbarrows of ballast, fencing poles and hard core (crushed rock and gravel). Accommodation and food for the artisan were provided, and a few people even volunteered their time and strength to help the artisan with manual labor.

The spring area was excavated 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 head wall to direct the water from the reservoir to the drawing area.

Plastering the headwall

As the wing walls and head wall were curing, the stairs were set and the tiles were fixed directly below the discharge pipe. This reduces the erosive force of the falling water and beautifies the spring. The process of plastering the head wall 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.  Lastly, the base of the spring was plastered and the collection box was cleaned. The source area was filled up with clean hardcore and covered with a polyethylene membrane to eliminate any potential sources of contamination. Finally, grass was planted and cutoff drains dug to direct surface water away from the spring box.

The only challenge during this process was the rain. It seems construction was scheduled during the brunt of a rainy season, and it delayed a lot of our artisan's work as he covered up his progress and sought a dry shelter. The community is so grateful for his perseverance as he continued to return and finish what he started.

This process has transformed Alunyoli Spring into a clean water source. People gathered to celebrate this transformation and fetch their first buckets of clean water. We heard people say things like "at long last we have access to clean and safe drinking water!"




October, 2017: Shikoti Community Project Underway

Shikoti Community will soon have a clean, safe source of water thanks to your donation. Community members have been drinking contaminated water from Alunyoli Spring, and often suffer physical illnesses after doing so. Our partner conducted a survey of the area and deemed it necessary to protect the spring, build new sanitation platforms (safe, easy-to-clean concrete floors for latrines), and conduct sanitation and hygiene training. Thanks to your generosity, waterborne disease will no longer be a challenge for the families drinking the spring’s water. We look forward to sharing more details with you as they come! But for now, please take some time to check out the report containing community information, pictures, and maps.




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: Shikoti Community, Alunyoli Spring

October, 2018

Student absenteeism has gone down in the year since the spring was protected due to fewer cases of waterborne diseases.

Keeping The Water Promise

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

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Shikoti 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!

A year ago, your generous donation enabled us to protect Alunyoli Spring for Shikoti Community in Kenya. The contributions of incredible monthly donors and others giving directly to The Water Promise allow our local teams to visit project sites throughout the year, strengthening relationships with communities and evaluating the water project over time. These consistent visits allow us to learn vital lessons and hear amazing stories – and we’re excited to share this one from local team member Joan Were with you.


"Since the spring was protected, fetching water is now an efficient task for us," spring caretaker Boniface Shikuku told us during a recent visit.

"Before the spring was protected, it used to grow algae in it. It doesn't anymore. We are very grateful for you caring about us and our health."

Boniface Shikuku

The availability of safe drinking water and access to sanitation facilities has improved children's attendance in school. This is due to the reduced cases of waterborne and hygiene-related diseases. The community now has a chance to grow economically because of the time, energy, and resources saved from access to improved water and sanitation. Households can now focus more on engaging in productive and income-generating activities.

"I now have time to do my homework because I spend only a few minutes at the spring fetching water for cooking, washing and cleaning dishes," 9-year-old Purity Khavai said.

Protection of the spring is only one step along the journey toward sustainable access to clean water. The Water Project is committed to consistent monitoring of each water source. Our monitoring and evaluation program, made possible by donors like you, allows us to maintain our relationships with communities by visiting up to 4 times each year to ensure that the water points are safe and reliable.

This is just one of the many ways that we monitor projects and communicate with you. Additionally, you can always check the functionality status and our project map to see how all of our water points are performing, based on our consistent monitoring data.

One project is just a drop in the bucket towards ending the global water crisis, but the ripple effects of this project are truly astounding. This spring in Shikoti is changing many lives.

"Since the spring was constructed, I report to school in a clean uniform because washing is now easy and enjoyable. The clean water from the spring does not discolor our clothes," Purity said.

Purity Khavai

This is only possible because of the web of support and trust built between The Water Project, our local teams, the community, and you. We are excited to stay in touch with this community and support their journey with safe water.

Read more about The Water Promise and how you can 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 Shikoti 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 Shikoti 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

Pacey Foundation of the Bank of America Charitable Gift Fund
Data Abstract Solutions Inc.
3 individual donor(s)