Clean water for 917 households Kenya

Thank you so much for supporting this project to make sure that communities across Kericho county have access to clean water.  Now more than every this is such a precious and vital commodity for schools and homes to keep safe and well from Covid-19 transmission.  The pandemic is far from over in Kenya where vaccines are slow to arrive and so far just 4% of the population are fully vaccinated.

Over the past few months, we have continued construction of 32,000 litre ferrous cement water tanks in schools and toilet blocks to accomodate the children.  The toilet blocks are constructed over very large pits and the cublices have a roof which is built to harvest rain water, collected in a tank and that is what the children use for handwashing.

Construction to protect 4 existing water sources is ongoing and long term but we are very excited by news from Julius Kipkoech who is the Construction Coordinator with Brighter Communities Worldwide.  Julius looks after construction activites including school water tanks and toilets and the water protection schemes.

The Kimaut water protection scheme is now operational and in use by the community!  Kimaut is in a remote and hard to reach part of Kericho county which has added to the construction challenges. Julius co-ordinates the project which is a partnership between Brighter Communities, the local community and Engineers without Borders Central Houston USA. 

Construction has involved building a 'spring box' to protect a natural water spring source where water bubbles to the surface that would otherwise collect in shallow pools and would be contaminated easily and be difficult for people to access over boggy ground.  The spring box incorporates drainage and a structure that allows for a pipe under wihich a container can be placed for easy water collection.  Therer are several stages to complete including construction of a cistern to collect water piped from the spring box and a concrete stand with handpumps where people from the community can gather to pump water into containers to bring to their nearby homes.   

As soon as the pumps were operational the people came and began to take the water which is their only source of clean water for miles.  The pumps and cistern are protected by a wall and a gate will follow to keep the area closed off to animals to prevent contamination.  A future phase will involve drilling a new borehole for additional water supply for the community. 

Julius says the community are so happy with the progress and proud of the achivement of having access to safe, clean water available at their door.

On November 30th, GlobalGiving is giving away one million dollars to nonprofits around the world as part of their #MoveAMillion campaign for #GivingTuesday. Your generosity can help us unlock a greater share of those funds!  If you would like to donate to this project again, November 30th is the day to do it so please mark your calendar today!  

Think of how much more can be achieved together in brining clean water to families across Kericho county.

Thank you for your support.