This project is a part of our shared program with Safe Water and Sustainable Hygiene Initiative (SAWASHI). Our team is pleased to directly share the below report (edited for clarity, as needed).
Welcome to the Community
Imbiakalo Community is home to peasant farmers who grow crops like maize, millet, beans, and potatoes. The most popular crop is sugarcane, since farmers can sell their entire harvest to local sugar factories. Men are the ones who spend the most time on farms, but many youth help cut sugarcane when it is ready for harvest. The youth here also harvest sand for construction projects as a way to supplement family income.
This area has an approximate population of 500 people from 50 different households.
Women are the ones most responsible for household upkeep. They cook, clean, and are seen most at the water points fetching water for those tasks. They must always ensure water is available at the home, regardless of factors such as time, distance, and water quality.
Water Situation
Kenya Finland Company drilled a well for this community in 1989. They saw the need for not only a safe water point, but a source in the village itself. Women were walking long distances to fetch water from springs (over one kilometer away). The well served the community for ten years until the pump failed. The community tried to repair the pump with local, mismatched materials so that it could continue to yield water. These temporary parts caused the pump to wear out faster, until it could no longer function. Women then had no other choice but to start making trips to the unprotected springs again.
In 2011, Water for All saw the need for a new pump and thus installed a solar pump. This worked for two years and then failed. Since there was nobody around to fix the pump anymore (the organization no longer exists), the community once again returned to the spring.
Women bring plastic containers to fetch water from the spring. One is a large jerrycan, and the other a smaller container to fill the jerrycan with water. Once home, water is separated by use. Drinking water is stored in large clay pots for drinking, since they keep the water cooler. These have covers and a cup which the entire family uses to draw and drink water. Water for cooking and cleaning is kept in the jerrycan in which it was fetched.
We met Lilian Matendechere at the well we plan to rehabilitate (check out the picture of Lilian under the "See Photos & Video" tab). She regrets how she has no other choice but to fetch water from the spring. She said, "There is regular outbreak of diarrhea and typhoid in both the young and the old, hence we use a lot of money in treatment." Fetching water from the spring doesn't only cause waterborne diseases. Having a water source so far away results in an acute water shortage. Women cannot afford for all of their time to be spent walking to and from the spring. Families must sacrifice cleanliness to have enough with which to cook and drink.
Sanitation Situation
Most of the households here have a pit latrine. Most of these are made of mud and grass, and have no doors for privacy. The same number of households have bathing rooms to practice personal hygiene. Under a quarter of households have a place to wash hands after using the latrine or before eating.
Facilities are not kept as clean as they should because of the water shortage. Hands are not washed because drinking water is more important. We believe that if there is a water source in the community, sanitation and hygiene will improve. The fact that most people here have a latrine proves that they care about these matters.
Plans: Hygiene and Sanitation Training
Community members will be trained for two days on applicable hygiene and sanitation practices. The facilitator will use the PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Training) method to teach about topics like: Importance of Using Latrines, Good and Bad Hygiene Behavior, Water Treatment, Water Storage, Food Preparation and Storage, Disease Transmission Routes, Blocking the Spread of Disease, and last but not least, Hand-Washing!
Training will result in the formation of a water user committee which will oversee, manage, and maintain the rehabilitated well. Participants will be taught how to build a tippy tap, which is a hand-washing station made out of a jerrycan, rope, and sticks. The facilitator will also encourage every household to build new sanitation facilities like latrines, bathing rooms, dish racks, and clotheslines.
Plans: Hand-Washing Stations
Two hand-washing stations are scheduled for delivery by the time well rehabilitation is complete. Training participants will be taught the steps to effective hand-washing, and of the importance of using a cleaning agent such as soap or ash. Water user committee members will also check that there is water inside the containers on a daily basis.
Plans: Well Rehabilitation
The community affirms that this well has sufficient water that will supply them throughout all seasons. The well has a total depth of 47 meters and a static water level of 10 meters.
The rehabilitation process will include material collection, pad reconstruction, flushing, test pumping, water quality testing, water treatment, and then pump installation.
With this well protected, community members will suffer less and less from waterborne disease. If they practice what they learn in hygiene and sanitation training, they will suffer less and less from communicable disease. Less disease means less money spent on medical treatment, and more time spent earning a living.
