Water Sanitation & Hygiene

Imagine running around the football field in your local school. One lap is about 400 meters. Now imagine having to walk around that track 50 times daily to get clean water. And, if you want to wash your clothes, you need to carry your laundry those 50 laps, too, often with a child strapped to your back.

Now imagine only having to walk just one time around the field. Isn’t that wonderful? You just got a taste of the relief that Zainabu and her neighbors have experienced thanks to a new water collection point in their community. Zainabu lives in Marsabit County. Water scarcity is a huge problem here. Getting water is a painful daily challenge, especially for the women and children who are responsible for walking long distances in search of streams and ponds. Even when they find these water sources, what they are bringing home is contaminated and unsafe water. It can make their families sick.

Sustainable safe water access through drilling and equipping of a borehole and installation of solar powered system. The borehole will support integrated water use to benefit humans and livestock.The borehole will have community water supply systems equipped with solar powered pumps, storage tanks and distribution pipelines at the target sites to provide safe, clean drinking water within closer locations and reduce time and distances spent looking for the precious commodity. Specially constructed water troughs for livestock will be put in strategic locations within the livestock movement routes nearer to the water sources.

“I am 61 years old now and I was married when I was 16 and this is the first time, I have had to walk less than 6 kms to fetch water. I even gave birth to one of my children on my way to a water hole,” says Zainabu. Zainabu’s is one of the 2,234 households that will benefit from having the solar-powered borehole in their community. In addition to families’ homes, the water kiosk serves two schools and a health centre. More than 2,000 people rely on that health center, and you can imagine how critical it is for a health center to have a clean, safe, and consistent water supply.