Project Status



Project Type:  Protected Spring

Regional Program: Western Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 140 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Jan 2018

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 10/08/2024

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

The people of Futsi Fuvili Village wake up very early in the morning to prepare their children for school and to work on their farms. The community living around the spring keeps dairy cattle and grow maize, vegetables and sugarcane. A good number of community members have lots of trees on their land, which serve both as a source of firewood and income generation - when they sell the trees for timber. The community is special because through farming and keeping dairy animals, they are able to earn enough money to educate their children. They are very hardworking!

Water Situation

Futsi Fuvili Community is predominantly inhabited by the Kabras sub-tribe of the Luhyia. However, other tribes come and go to draw water from their water sources. Patrick Munyala Spring is one of the main water sources, serving 140 people from 20 different households. They use the water for drinking, irrigation during the dry seasons, cooking, and other household chores.

This spring is open to contamination and predisposes its users to waterborne diseases such as typhoid, amoeba and malaria. One of the locals who live nearby the spring reports that during rainfall, rainwater floods the spring and makes the water filthy.

Sanitation Situation

It was also noted that more than half of homes here still don't have pit latrines. While some people share sanitation facilities with their neighbors, others reportedly opt for open defecation; this was endangering the entire community to fecal-oral diseases. If latrines are old, dirty, or poorly built, using the bushes as a bathroom often seems the safer option. Many of the latrines we observed are made of wooden slats that rot away and are almost impossible to clean.

When humans use the bushes as animals do, there is even a greater level of contamination spread around by flies, animals, and rainwater. Not to mention that rainwater is already washing a lot of waste into Patrick Munyala Spring. Mr. Abraham Malova relies on the spring and has noticed this. "This is a God-given opportunity, and the idea of protecting the spring will solve the water problems. Moreover, the sanitation facilities and health promotion campaign through trainings will enable, enlighten and capacity-build the community to take matters related to community health as a priority," he said.

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. One of the most important topics we plan to cover is open defecation and its dangers, as well as having and using a pit latrine.

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.

Plans: Sanitation Platforms

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

Plans: Spring Protection

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.

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

Project Updates


June, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Patrick Munyalo 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 Futsi Fuvili, 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.




December, 2018: A Year Later: Futsi Fuvili Community, Patrick Munyala Spring

A year ago, your generous donation enabled us to protect Patrick Munyala Spring for Futsi Fuvili 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...




January, 2018: Futsi Fuvili Community Project Complete

Patrick Munyala Spring in Futsi Fuvili 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

Hygiene and sanitation training was organized between the field officer and our contact person, Mr. Abraham. He is respected in Futsi Fuvili Community and was the one who introduced us to this spring in the first place. Mr. Abraham went household to household to invite everyone to training.

28 people met us at the homestead closest to the spring, seating themselves on the green grass there. It was easy for them to be attentive, since training is highly interactive.

We 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. Since we were right by the spring, we could run through hands-on management and maintenance demonstrations.

We spent an entire session on hand-washing and its importance. When, how, and why should one wash their hands? We also taught participants how to construct their own hand-washing stations with local and affordable materials.

Mrs. Robai Wanyama said, "We are very grateful for your care, support and concern. Apart from protecting our spring, you have sacrificed your time to come and educate us. Indeed I personally want to thank you for training us about food, water and environmental hygiene for they are what affect me most. Whatever the information I have received, I will put it in practice and ensure all my family members do the same. Thank you so much!"

Mrs. Robai Wanyama

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.

This family is proud of their new, safe latrine floor.

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 we asked a few people to volunteer 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.

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.

Protecting the spring up to the discharge pipe.

Once the artisan finished his part, community members worked together to build a fence.

This process has transformed Patrick Munyala Spring into a flowing source of clean water. Robai Wanyama witnessed the artisan do his work and thought to herself, "I can do that too!" It was moving to see a woman get so passionate about a job that's normally dominated by men. She thinks she'll pursue training to become an artisan herself!

Community members flocked to the spring to get their first buckets of clean water. Florence Lanya said, "Thank you very much for the safe water you have brought us. We have really suffered for long. I personally, since I got married into this community I have never had clean water. But indeed God has heard my prayers!"




November, 2017: Futsi Fuvili Community Project Underway

Futsi Fuvili Community will soon have a clean, safe source of water thanks to your donation. Community members have been drinking contaminated water from Patrick 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: Futsi Fuvili Community, Patrick Munyala Spring

December, 2018

The clean water at the spring has helped 11-year-old Stella Anne keep her school uniform clean, and as a result she was just named a sanitation and hygiene leader at school.

Keeping The Water Promise

There's an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water in Futsi Fuvili Community 3.

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Futsi Fuvili Community 3 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 Patrick Munyala Spring for Futsi Fuvili 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 Jemmimah Khasoha with you.

Life for people here has improved both health-wise and economically. All of this change has been thanks to the clean water flowing from Munyala Spring, as well as the hygiene and sanitation training held last year.

"Our children now attend school daily due to reduced cases of stomachaches. We no longer have waterborne diseases like typhoid and cholera due to the availability of clean water," said Naomi Osula to us during a recent visit to the spring.

Naomi Osula

During the dry season this year, the community members were still able to water and grow vegetables due to the availability of water at the spring.

"Our agricultural practice has improved, for people have a lot of time to plant a variety of crops knowing water is available all the time," Ms. Osula added.

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 project in Futsi Fuvili is changing many lives.

"I am so happy because I now get clean water which I use to wash my uniform and as a result I was chosen as the cleanest pupil at my school," said 11-year-old Stella Anne. "It is because of this that I was appointed the sanitation and hygiene leader in my school!"

Stella Anne and Field Officer Jemmimah Kohasoha

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 Futsi Fuvili Community 3 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 Futsi Fuvili Community 3 – 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

Faith Chapel
H. Clarke Powers Elementary School
2 individual donor(s)