Category: Uncategorized

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Our team responded to a call from St. Stephen, Mungakha Anglican Church of Kenya to intervene and resolve their dire water situation amidst the prevailing Covid19 pandemic. St. Stephen, Mungakha ACK is located in Matungu sub-county, Kakamega County in rural western Kenya. The church has a congregation of approximately 300.people mainly hailing from Mungakha village and the environs. Neighbouring the church is St. Stephen Mungakha primary and secondary schools with a population of 1120 and 150 learners respectively. Neither of the schools has a reliable source of water.

According to Reverend Florence Teyie, the current water source for the church is a spring located approximately 2 Km away. This makes it hard to hold functions at the church. They often borrow drinking water from neighboring households to tend to church visitors. She further indicated that most children do not attend the church on Sundays in light of the current prevalence of Covid19 coupled with lack of access to a reliable source of water to sufficiently cater for handwashing and other hygiene activities.

This is happening in the back drop of the church having benefited from a Kenya Finland Cooperation borehole project in the early 1980s. The borehole was fitted with a NIRA-85 hand-pump. The pump failed catastrophically the year 2005, and due to lack of a local supply chain, modifications from local artisans – with limited skills – only rendered the church, the schools and the community at large without access to clean water for good! In the process of repair, the unskilled local artisans broke the borehole casings exposing it to grave siltation.

A major risk factor for infectious diseases and mortality particularly in children under five years is the lack of safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. According to the Kenya Bureau of statistics (2019), Matungu Sub-county had a population of 166,940 people with a population density of 598 people per square kilometer. The year 2020, Matungu sub-county recorded 768 cases of diarrhea, 2 cases of CHOLERA, 3881 cases of skin diseases, 21 cases of typhoid fever and 23 cases of jigger infestation among children aged below 5 years.

Your donation towards this project will enable drilling of a new borehole for the church as well as equipping it with an Afridev hand-pump, which is locally appropriate with a steady supply chain for spares. Your support will enable capacity building of local artisans on hand-pump repairs as well as the church leadership and the community at large on appropriate operation and maintenance approaches for sustainability of the project. Most importantly, your support towards this project will improve the health and well-being of Mungakha ACK community.

Rehabilitation of Kharakha Community Water Point

Safe Water & sustainable Hygiene Initiative (SAWASHI) mission is to enhance access to safe, convenient and reliable drinking water through drilling & equipping of boreholes, rehabilitation of boreholes and shallow wells, spring protections and offering long-term operation and maintenance support. Since its inception in 2016, the organization in partnership with development partners has drilled and equipped over 20 boreholes, rehabilitated over 30 boreholes and supported long-term functionality monitoring and operation and maintenance of over 150 existing village hand-pumps, as a result providing reliable water service to over 30,000 people in Western Kenya.

Despite being a signatory to the ambitious United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 6, Kenya remains a water-scarce country accounting for 3% of the proportion of people without safe drinking water globally. Communities in Western Kenya recorded a rapid increase in the coverage of people accessing clean water (from 9% to 64%) during the period 1981–2000 through the (Kenya Finland Cooperation) KEFINCO program. By 2008, coverage had fallen to 46% partly because of the rapid population growth in Western Kenya and the poor supply chain for some of the hand-pump technologies.

Although spring protection and installation of hand-pumps on shallow hand-dug wells and boreholes remains the most appropriate technologies for rural Western Kenya, many communities have been cut off their precious water points due to the failure of their hand-pumps. The Nira-85 hand-pump, which had been utilized as a shallow well hand-pump was not widely used elsewhere in Kenya. Unlike the Afridev hand-pumps, the NIRA-85 hand-pump was not supported in Kenya with an effective system of spare parts and technical back-up. This has impacted negatively the sustainability of these communal water points.

Recently, SAWASHI in partnership with The Fernandes Barasa Foundation rehabilitated a KEFINCO well that was constructed in 1985 and fitted it with an Afridev hand-pump in Kharakha village, in Malava Sub-county. According to the community members, their NIRA-85 hand-pump was vandalized in 1999 but due to lack of a supporting operation and maintenance mechanism, they resorted to drawing water from the well-using containers tied with ropes. The community members have previously reached out to well-wishers to have their water point rehabilitated, all in vain. The rehabilitated well now serves approximately 45 households and a neighbouring Seventh Day Adventist church.

Community members expressed their optimism throughout the rehabilitation period. Their active participation was evident enough to the undying hope of restoring their water point into an improved functional state. SAWASHI has enrolled the water point into their operation and maintenance program, to ensure the community continues to receive a reliable service over time. This is just one of the many communal water points that SAWASHI has rehabilitated in western Kenya impacting target communities positively. Many communities in Western Kenya remain un-served and continue to access water from unprotected sources yet they have viable boreholes, shallow wells and springs, that if rehabilitated, will not only improve the proportion of people accessing clean water but will help safeguard precious development support into rural water infrastructure as we work towards SGD No. 6 targets by the year 2030.

SAWASHI’s mission is to enhance access to drinking to all communities in dire need in western Kenya. Join us in this noble mission.

Your 10 US Dollar made towards this mission will bring hope to the most vulnerable communities.

SABATIA

Hand Pump Repair Afridev

SAWASHI

Butiti primary school has been running without water for the past five years. The school’s water pump broke down back in the year 2015 and since then, the functioning of the school has been affected greatly. The pupils have had to spend most of their time trekking for over 2 km from the school in search of drinking water. These conditions interrupt the learning and teaching processes of the school and further bringing about unsafe and unsanitary environment. In the past week our organisation, SAWASHI, intervened and we have successfully repaired the handpump. With flowing waters and a cleaner learning environment there is going to be a positive change with a ripple effect to the school and the neighbouring community at large.

It is an important duty for all of us to participate in enabling communities and schools to have access to safe, convenient and reliable water sources.

Support SAWASHI reach more schools in dire need of this service

We believe, every community has the ability to enhance their quality of life; and it all begins by having access to convenient, safe and reliable drinking water

SAWASHI

Khalakha Village

Water Crisis

Khalakha village is found in the rural areas of Malava sub-county neighbouring Cheptuli village

Malava sub-county

The successful completion and rejuvenation of Cheptuli Community Water Point (NIRA Pump Repair at Cheptuli Village), another need arose immediately over a non-functional Kefinco hand-dug well (Khalakha Water Point) in Khalakha village of Malava sub-county in Kakamega County. A Khalakha village member approached SAWASHI team seeking assistance for rehabilitation of their broken-down hand-dug well since 2005. SAWASHI team responded to the call and went to assess the extent of damage the water point had and establish ways to rehabilitate the water point. SAWASHI team made the following observations:

In 2009, the Nira pump was stolen by an unknown individual. Since then, the community has been relying on water from an unprotected spring that is far for most villagers in Khalakha and Cheptuli.

In 2018, Khalakha community members came up with an idea of opening up the well so that they could fetch water from the well as shown in the photos below. This alternative idea is associated with a lot of risks to children and adults. The exposed hand-dug well is potentially dangerous to children, who may fall in and drown. To adults, in case of conflicts, there is a high potential of poisoning the water source or compromising its quality.

This poses a sanitation and hygiene problems to Khalakha community members. It has rendered women unproductive because most of the time they spend a lot of time fetching water for domestic and animals use. Addressing this water challenge will reduce time wastage and increase the socioeconomic potential of the area by empowering women and girls in Khalakha. Most girls in the area drop out of school at a tender age thus contributing to increased illiteracy levels among girls and women.

It takes a concerted effort to address this endemic problem (water challenge and girl child education).

Support SAWASHI to empower this community. Click on the Call below.

…Your 1-dollar gift towards this project, will help Khalakha Community enjoy freshwater near their homes. At the same time, girls will access school and become their dream ladies socially and economically empowered.

Or the Button Below

Give to A Good Course

Malava

Cheptuli Village

Malava

SAWASHI team conducted repairs on a Nira pump that was installed by Kefinco in 1983. Cheptuli is now connected to safe, reliable and convenient water.

What we love as SAWASHI is to continuously make water available especially during this COVID19 pandemic period.

We believe, every community has the ability to enhance their quality of life; and it all begins with having access to convenient, safe & reliable drinking water.

Support the Progamme, we end Water poverty

Reach us on: Mobile & WhatsApp No. +254701372371, Facebook.com/KESAWASHI, Twitter.com/SAWASHIKENYA, Instagram.com/Safe_Water_Org and Email: sawakakamega@gmail.com. Visit our website: https://www.sawashikenya.orgWater for Life. Keep on keeping safe

#TheBachelor #SDG6 #TuesdayThoughts #tuesdayVibes #covid19

As schools reopened this year (2021), the reality also checked in. Most schools in Kenya lack sustainable water sources thus relies on pupils at elementary level to secure it. The few schools with boreholes and hand dug well fitted with handpumps require repairs and maintenance due to frequent breakdown. That is why SAWASHI exists. SAWASHI management makes sure that schools especially during this tough times of #COVID19 pandemic, have access to clean, safe and reliable water in schools in western Kenya.

Last week SAWASHI team visited Iranda Primary School to respond to a water crisis in the school. The school had been operating without water for the past two weeks since it opened its doors to pupils.

The headteacher was persistent in reminding SAWASHI management of the water crisis at the school. SAWASHI responded and connected the school to this vital resource (clean, safe and reliable drinking water). Here is the clip of the repairs and statement from the school headteacher

We believe every community has the ability to enhance their quality of life; and it all begins with having access to convenient, safe & reliable drinking water.

SAWASHI (2016)

When communities have access to clean, safe and reliable water sources that are sustainanble, SAWASHI and its partners feel rejuvenated and energised to expand the reach to have as many communities access this noble service.

Water is Life; Water for Life.

To expand this reach, we welcome wellwisher and funding partners to become part of this service.

Your donation will go along way to help schools and communities in dire need of these vital resources.

You can reach SAWASHI on: https://facebook.com/KESAWASHI ; https://twitter.com/SAWASHIKENYA; https://instagram.com/Safe_Water_Org;

You can also visit our website on: https://sawashikenya.org