This project is part of Bridge Water Project's program in Western Kenya. What follows is direct from them:
BACKGROUND
The proposed Musidi Community water project is a drilled water point established by Kenya Finland Company in the year 1989 with registration number C-8600. The well records a total depth of 30M with the water rest level 19M (RSL) well was cased with 4” UPVC casing well pad constructed and a Nirra pump was installed which served the community up to 2012 when it broke down. The well ceased functioning in 2012 due to a breakdown of the pump. Since then, the water management committee tried several attempts to rehabilitate the well but failed. As BWP was at Navakholo implementing, one of the Musidi community members came across and made a request to Bridge Water Project to consider rehabilitating their well to enable access clean water for their domestic use and community members.
CURRENT WATER SOURCE
The communities currently fetch water from unprotected spring called Mtengeti situated 2km away from the community. The community members have to walk all this 2km distance. The pathway to the river is narrow and surrounded by sugarcane plantations. This is risky especially to the young girls.
POPULATION
The population of Musidi community is 60 households with approximate 5 people per house averagely 300-400 people
HYGIENE & SANITATION
Most of the homes in Musidi Community do not have pit latrines, composite and bathrooms, and those having them are not covered. Water storage facilities are in poor condition and not well covered. No hand washing stations.
ACCESSING THE NEED
There’s need to rehabilitate the proposed Musidi community well to improve the security of the girls in the community, to enable the community members accesses quality water for their domestic needs and also improve their hygiene and sanitation standards, which is aimed at improving their Health.
PROJECT BENEFICIARIES
If the well is rehabilitated it will benefit the entire Musidi Community.
WATER COMMITTEE
The Musidi water committee has already been appointed that includes the village elder (local administration) who will be responsible for operation maintenance and management of the water point to ensure its sustainability.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION
Introduction and rational
In order to address the fundamental determinants of hygiene and sanitation at Musidi community, BWP identified the need to prevent disease and promote health conditions associated with limited access to clean and safe drinking water. To achieve this, BWP conducted community education on hygiene and sanitation. According to the organization, provision of hygiene and sanitation education was important in complementing the proposed rehabilitation of Musidi community borehole.
The training was convened under a tree near the proposed borehole site. The training was attended by 40 community members, 21 men and 19 women. The training started with prayer and a brief introduction between the BWP team and the community members. BWP facilitators stated the objectives of the training to community members. The objective of the training was to prevent disease and promote good health practices by targeting hygiene behaviors, sanitation practices, transmission and prevention of diarrheal and other waterborne diseases. The training also emphasized the need for sustainability of the project through community partnership, contribution and ownership.
Training materials
Training materials included pictures of good and bad hygiene behaviors and sanitation practices, the F-diagram, pictures of blocking disease transmission, flip charts, marker pens, seeds (maize and beans) for voting during pocket chart presentations and sticks for use to demonstrate the role play on community entry.
Training methodology
Facilitators from BWP adopted the participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) technique in equipping the community members with relevant skills. This approach was preferred because it enhanced participation of all community members regardless of their social backgrounds. The approach uses pictorial presentations to communicate hygiene and sanitation messages hence easy to understand.
Steps followed during the training
PHAST methodology goes through different steps so as to convey the hygiene and sanitation message.
Step 1. Community entry
As a first step this tool helped to bring out the different relationships that agencies have with community members while implementing a project. In the River Crossing Role Play, there’s a flooded river with three stones placed at equal distances from each other within the river. Since the travelers were unfamiliar with the river, the herdsman helped them cross through it.
The participants were engaged in a role play to demonstrate entry of a development partner in their community. The three volunteers from among the participants’ two representing travelers and one a herdsman participated in the role play. After the play was performed, the community members stated what they had seen and learnt from the play. The river represented the problems in the community, the stones represented the solutions, and the herdsman represented the agencies which in this case is BWP, while the travelers represented the community. The purpose of this role play was to show the importance of community participation in the implementation of any project. Materials used included two sticks and three stones.
Step 2. Problem analysis
The objective of this step was to demonstrate hygiene and sanitation problems in the community through a participatory assessment by the participants. To achieve this objective, community members were taken through different activities focusing on: good and bad hygiene behaviors’; investigating community practices and diseases transmission routes.
Materials used included pictures of good and bad hygiene behaviors, sanitation practices and the F-diagram. Flips charts and maker pens were also used.
a) Good and bad hygiene practices
For this activity, the two pile sorting tool was applied. This tool helps trainees exchange information on community hygiene behaviors and their impact on health through discussionsAt the end of the session, community members were able to identify good and bad behaviors. It was evident that most of them had been practicing bad hygiene and sanitation practices out of ignorance.
b) Investigating community practices
In investigating community practices, the facilitator found it necessary to investigate the proportion of participants who used pit latrines for feacal defecation. The facilitator engaged the participants in an activity with the aim of collecting and analyzing information on individual sanitation practices. The pocket chart tool was used during this exercise. The facilitator explained the posters that would be used on the pocket. The posters showed open defecation and use of latrines, a man and a woman. Seeds (maize and beans) were used as voting materials for to distinguish men and women respectively.
The result from the pocket showed that 9 (22.5%) out of the 40 (100.0%) community members who took part in the voting exercise still practiced open defecation. All who defecated in the open were women.
After confirming from the pocket chart that the community still practiced open defecation, the BWP facilitator sought to find out from them the disadvantages of this habit. They are stated below:
Contamination of water sources.
Contamination of food by Flies that come from the feaces.
Spread of diarrheal diseases.
Pollution of the environment through bad smell.
BWP facilitator urged the community members to make use of latrines so as to curb the spread of diarrheal diseases. Some community members expressed the need to be assisted with slabs so that they could improve the conditions of their pit latrines.
c) Disease transmission routes
Water and environmental sanitation play an essential role in the spread of many diarrheal diseases. These diseases are spread through person to person or fecal matter contact. Due to this fact, BWP used the ‘F’ – Diagram as a learning tool for the community members to know how those diseases are spread. The F-diagram shows the different transmission routes that fecal matter use to get to the human body.
The ‘F’s represent Fingers, Feaces, Fluids, Flies and Fields. The posters used reflected all the five ‘F’s and so the community members were required to show the route that feaces use to get to the human body by use of arrows. After having a general discussion, the community members were able to come up with all the routes. They all learnt that diarrheal could easily spread if good hygiene is not put into practice.
Step 3. Identification of solution
Identification of solutions helps to identify all the possible barriers that can prevent the disease transmission routes. BWP introduced the Blocking posters to the Community members so that they would use them to block the disease transmission routes on the F- diagram. The tool used for this exercise was the blocking posters. The posters represented Latrine use, Water treatment, Food covering and Hand washing. The community members went back to the F-diagram to block all the routes. Every route that showed a bad hygiene practice was covered by a good hygiene blocking posters.
Since Hand washing was one of the essential practices on the Blocking posters, the community members made demonstration of proper Hand washing through the guidance of the BWP facilitator. This exercise was important since most disease causing agents get to our bodies through our hands.
During the blocking posters exercise, the community members also discussed water treatment. They came up with the diseases that came about as a result of consuming contaminated water. The diseases mentioned were typhoid, cholera, dysentery and diarrhea in children. This exercise was essential since cases of diarrhea and typhoid were very common in the community as found out during the baseline survey. The community members also discussed different methods of water treatment which included boiling, filtration, chlorination and the use of the life straw gadget. The BWP facilitator helped them understand that treated water could only remain safe it is stored well in clean containers.
PAD CONSTRUCTION
After community education, BWP embarked on its second activity towards rehabilitation of Musidi community borehole which included pad construction. The masonry team from BWP fitted the slab with foundation bolts in preparation for installation of afridev pump. The bolts were reinforced with cement. The pad was left to cure for three days. The masons did the final finishing with cement to ensure the borehole was adequately protected. This was done with keenness to avoid contamination of the well. Community members were involved in the entire process to assist where necessary and also to equip them with relevant skills on how to maintain the borehole. The pad was then left to cure awaiting pump installation.
FLUSHING
The flushing of this well was done to remove stagnant water that had been there for some time to allow the recharge to take place.
PUMP INSTALLATION
Pump installation stage followed immediately. The target for this day was to ensure that after the pump has been installed, the well was to be handed over to the community. The Musidi community members were thrilled for this project completion and expressed their joy and gratitude to BWP and The Water Project.
