UPDATE - thoughts for distributing well water to Kyaithani and 6 schools

We earlier reported that a project was being investigated to see if we could construct a pipeline from our very successful well in Ndandini to the village of Kyaithani, some 4km distant, which is home to over 3000 villagers.

I am pleased to be able to report that since drilling the Ndandini well in June 2010, it still continues to produce clean water at the original rate of 19,000 litres/hour (when the pump is active).  This is very good news as it shows that the water source, some 9 months later, is still highly productive.  With this reassurance, we can more confidently proceed with plans to try to distribute the water from the well to more distance beneficiaries.

Our water distribution investigations are now pointing us in a slightly different direction.  We are looking at the possibiliity of providing a TRACTOR and WAGON with water tanks.  We saw one last September while in Kenya (see below) and that got us thinking more seriously about this option.

A pipeline would provide water at only one point where we could install a storage tank and a set of taps.

A tractor could DELIVER water to each of the 6 schools in the Ndandini/Kyaithani area that have no water as well as to several potential storage tanks and distribution taps around the village area!  We are thinking that this might be a much better way to get clean water to more people in the near term.

If you consider there are approximately 200 children at each of the 6 schools, that's 1200 people that would be getting clean water every day because of this project.  A couple of extra storage tanks in the village and we can reach the whole 3000+ people in the Kyaithani area.

We are working on developing the project budget and setting this up as another Rotary matching grant project (similar to the very successful one which resulted in the provision of the Ndandini well).

If you are a Rotary Club, or an individual whether a member of Rotary or not, that would be interested in getting involved with us on this project, let me know at terryumbach@hotmail.com .

Keep watching for more news as we move forward on this promising initiative to make more use of the water from the Ndandini well site.

Terry

COMMUNITY GARDEN UPDATE - Land now secured

We have successfully completed the negotiations with the landowner and now have secured clear title to the one acre of land for the community garden.  Thanks again to the great on-the-ground work of our Nairobi based project manager Duncan.

The Ndandini Water Committee, headed by Kimali who is the principal at the Kyaithani secondary school, is now coordinating the colunteer labour of the village to clear the land in preparation for the next step in the project.

We are hoping that by mid-March the land will have been cleared of all the current brush (it has been unused for a while) so that Duncan will then be able to get the whole plot fenced to keep all grazing animals out of the area and away from the eventual drip-irrigation garden.

Keep watching for updates as this part of the project gets underway. 

Terry