The desperate water situation across the
diocese manifests itself in different ways:-
- Waterborne diseases from contaminated water cause serious
illnesses and premature deaths
- During the dry season wells, springs and streams nearly all dry
up and water prices escalate several fold
- All water has to be carried from its source and is a burden on
women and children in carrying it over long distances when they
could be more gainfully employed or at school
The situation Geoff found at his link school
in Chebukutumi in 2007 is typical. Even the 100m deep borehole
serving the whole village dried up and the desperately thirsty
children were forced to travel several kilometres to collect water
from the contaminated Malakisi River where they could not resist
drinking it once they arrived. It was this situation and the lack
of water at the school for 4 months which inspired Geoff as an
engineer to offer some help which led to the installation of the
first water storage tank fed from the school roofs.
Then followed a well at Mapela and a preliminary water survey
carried out by the Bungoma diocese. It was at Mapela that Geoff had
the good fortune to meet up with Noah Lusaka, who had a diploma in
environmental studies and was working for a charity in Nairobi
developing the arid lands of East Africa. Noah proposed a pilot
scheme of harvested water storage tanks at Mapela and this project
was completed and inspected by Geoff and Diannah in 2009.
During their 2009 mission Geoff and Diannah carried out detailed
water surveys at the 10 most needy parishes recording all the water
sources and whether they were seasonal and protected. In nearly all
cases the shallow wells, springs and streams dried up in the dry
season and were contaminated. On their return they set in motion a
programme to build a 30000 litre harvested water tank at each
location and set up this charity to fund them under a partnership
arrangement using local labour and materials with assistance and
supervision from the Mapela Christian Women Group and funding from
the UK charity
Wilmslow Wells for
Africa.
Our principal objective in water has been
that of providing access to clean water across the whole diocese
which now comprises 8 archdeaconries. To this end we have
been carrying out detail water surveys to determine the water needs
and resources in their parishes. So far we have surveyed 57
parishes in 4 of the archdeaconries and have excecuted 49 clean
water projects which include 24 harvested water tanks, 16 spring
protection schemes and 6 wells with hand pumps.
A video of the construction of the spring
protection scheme at Siuna Mukoya in Murembe parish can be viewed
here........
Siuna
Mukoya
And a video of the construction of a hand
dug borehole with handpump at Marakaru parish mother church can be
viewed here........
Marakaru Borehole
The work of the charity continues to
carry out further surveys, to build more water tanks, to sink new
wells and to protect natural springs to relieve the desperate water
situation.