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Water Projects
Your
money is providing clean water to
thousands of people in Kitui.
Please
continue your support and sponsor a project.
For
a full list of our 2009/11 projects click
HERE
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A Story of Change- Kalole Well in Kyuso
District
This report was prepared
by Jacinta, Water Technician, Development Department,
Diocese of Kitui, September 22nd 2010
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Picture
1.- The Kalole Community
at work providing unskilled labour
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Initially, the community
travelled a distance of more than 10km to a nearby water
source which was an earthen dam. Water collected in this
main source was not 100% clean since it comes from
surfacewater runoff. The community identified a water need
in their locality and came together to form a group with a
common interest of making water available in good quality
and adequate quantity.
Kalole group started
by excavating a hand dug well in the farm of one of their
members which was donated to them freely by the member. The
community made efforts in sinking the well until they
struck the water table. At this point it became a bit
difficult for them to continue doing the well since it
required that a skilled worker be engaged, which would cost
money.
Kalole community
approached the Catholic Diocese of Kitui Development
Department for assistance.
Their proposal was
honored and their project was identified as one to be done
in the latest Friends of Kitui Round 4 programme. After
visiting the project and a meeting with the project
beneficiaries, a contribution towards constructing the
project was agreed and the community promised to contribute
their part.
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Picture
3 -A session of management training
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Picture
2 -Water being pumped from the completed well
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Ruth
– the group Chairlady - gave her story about the project
in her own words
We in Kalole community
were suffering a lot from water scarcity since we had to
travel a distance of not less than 10km to the nearest
water source(Matingani dam in Kyuso), We identified our
problem and sat down to find a solution to this. We
concluded that we should come together as a group to do a
well which will provide clean and viable water for us.
After we had this idea
in our minds, we approached the District water office to
site a viable place to locate our well.
After siting, we
started doing the well by ourselves until we struck water.
At this point we approached the Catholic Diocese of Kitui
Water development department to see whether they will
assist us in doing the remaining bit of the well.
Our proposal was
accepted and we held a meeting with the Diocesan officers
who introduced us to what we should do so as to have the
water near us.
During our discussion
we laid down that we should provide locally available
materials and unskilled labour in order to construct the
well.
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From this point we
started working on the project where we made locally
available materials like sand, ballast, water, making
bricks for walling available. On the other side the Diocese
provided labour costs for deepening the well by 15 feet,
cement for making the bricks, supplied us with a hand pump
and paid skilled labour for constructing the well.
On top of this,
Project management training was administered by the Diocese
in collaboration with the Government Ministry of Water and
Irrigation officers so as to enable us manage our project
properly.
At this time we are
very happy because we have a well which has a lot of water
and its fully constructed and a pump installed to enable us
get water easily from the well.
We are very much
thankful to Friends of Kitui through the Catholic Diocese
of Kitui for this much support. We are no longer travelling
the 10km, now on average 2 km are covered by the furthest
beneficiary to the well.
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Previous Friends of Kitui Water Projects
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Wells at Musuoni and Kiatineni
This 7 minute video shows the first two
wells to be constructed from the 8 projects in Round 1 sponsored
by Friends of Kitui in 2006. Musuoni Well was funded by
Loreto Primary School, Dalkey, and Kiatineni Well was
funded by the Seaver family.
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This video gives a brief introduction
to the Water Programme
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The
water situation in Kitui is critical.
Friends
of Kitui will support simple, practical projects with
a high chance of success.
It
costs only €5- €10 per person to provide clean water!
To Donate to a water project, please go to our Donations
Page
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In the Water
Issues page we tell you more about the water situation in
Kitui, and
how the Diocesan Water Depart- ment works to improve
matters for the people. By
sponsoring water projects to provide safe water within easy walking
distance of communities, we can greatly improve the living conditions of
all the people- but most particularly the women. It's important to realise
that the time saved by shortening the distance to safe water can be spent
more productively in raising crops.
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In the Current
Projects section you will find details of a number of water projects
which we have undertaken to support in the coming year. We have also
included detailed budget costings for these projects so that you can see
how the money will be spent. All these projects are a partnership between
the donor and the community.
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For as little as €1500 you could provide a
safe water supply for up to 200 people.
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We are always looking
for sponsors for water projects.
In the Wells
for Africa page you will see how one group has adopted a number of
projects, and has already (July 2006) sponsored one shallow well for
Musuoni. Please consider sponsoring a similar
project- contact us
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Access
to Water and Electricity across all provinces
of Kenya
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Access
to water
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Access
to electricity
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Province
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%
of households with piped water in dwelling
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%
of people with water source less than 15min walk
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%
with electricity
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%
without electricity
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Nairobi
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33.2
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95.9
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71.4
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28.5
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Central
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11.8
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70.9
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19.2
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80.4
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Coast
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8.1
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63.9
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19.3
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80.5
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Eastern (which
includes Kitui)
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4.1
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38.7
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6.9
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93.1
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N. Eastern
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0.6
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22.1
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3.2
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95.9
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Nyanza
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0.6
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31.6
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5.1
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94.9
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Rift Valley
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4.5
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50.5
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10.5
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89.5
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Western
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1.3
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44.6
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1.6
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98.2
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Kenya overall
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7.6
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53.2
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16.0
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83.9
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Emergency Food-For-Work (FFW) Programme:
Following the February 2009 visit to
Kitui to inspect progress on water projects, we have agreed
to provide food-for-work for four specific projects in
Mwitika division in north-east Kitui, where the famine
situation was preventing the communities from
participating by providing locally sourced materials
such as sand and ballast.
The reason is that, following almost
total crop failure after the failure of the rains,
they are forced to seek casual work to pay for food for
their families. Up to now we have insisted that the
community should provide unskilled labour and locally
sourced materials "free of charge".
We took this decision based on the gravity of the
situation, which we saw with our own eyes on the ground,
because if these communities do not have access to water
from our sand dams for the next drought period, their
situation will become even worse.
The Development Department of the Diocese of Kitui, which
manages the water projects on behalf of Friends of Kitui,
has now worked out details of the food-for-work programme.
In short, the proposal is to provide food for 260
households for 20 days, at a total cost of KSh528,000
(€5300).
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The
food for work strategy will mean that each household working on
collecting local materials such as sand and hardcore for
these sand dams will be entitled to a set portion of foodstuff
(maize) per day worked, for a total of 20 working days in
the project.
Those
households who had already been involved in the project before
the new strategy will be given the first priority,
and new members added following defined criteria. The
groups will be required to elect a committee to oversee the
activities of the entire group.
Criteria
for selection
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The
most disadvantaged households should be given the first
priority and be in a position to work manually
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Households
with no alternative source of income
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Households
living in the targeted sub-location or the villages which
will benefit from the proposed dam.
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Left: A 50000 litre water storage tank at
Makayauni school. The guttering which channels the
rainwater can be seen on the right.
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Right: A new shallow well
under construction. As climate change takes effect and successive
poor rains are experienced, water table depth is lowering,
causing wells to run dry.
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Keeping Up to Date- February 2009:
We continue to monitor completed projects to ensure that
they continue to serve the community and to learn from any mistakes that
might have been made.
During the February 2009 inspection visit, we discovered
that two wells which had been dug in the 2006 programme were not
now producing
adequate water. The reason is that the depth of the water table has
dropped due to the sequence of below-normal rains over the past three
years. When first completed, the water flow was very good. We will now put in place the necessary funds to pay for deepening
these wells further. This will be done over the coming weeks.
If the pattern of successive failed rainy
seasons continues, we will probably find that more wells
will run dry. We intend to keep a close eye on the
situation
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A dried-up earth dam on the
Nairobi-Kitui road. Just one month after the end of the rains,
this dam contains absolutely no water.
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Left: A local girl holds a plaque noting
the sponsorship of 3Sixty Marketing in the construction of
this sand dam at Makongo
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Right: People and
animals share a water source on this seasonal river
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We started in 2006/2007 with the first batch of 8 water
projects. This was followed late 2007 with Round 2, comprising a further
12 projects. And now, December 2011, we have completed
Round 4, bringing the total to 64.
Each
project has the potential for supporting 250 to 350 people by providing
them with a safer water supply, closer to their homes. For more background
information see the Water Issues page.
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Examples
of Friends
of Kitui Water Projects
All
12 of the second ("Round 2") batch of projects (listed right) were
selected following a needs assessment carried out January 2008 by
Jacinta Mutheu, Diocesan Water Officer, and a temporary
engineer employed by Friends of Kitui to assist on this
task. Initial budgets were prepared and compared with
similar costings from work carried out by another agency.
The final budgets were approved by Friends of Kitui and work commenced late
February.
The
majority of the projects were completed by July.Six
projects in Kyuso, including one on the mission compound,
were started late on April 17th due to some
difficulties in reaching procedural agreement between the
Diocesan Development Department and the the parish of Kyuso.
These projects were completed in August 2008.
In
total, 4150 persons in about 520 households have benefited from this batch
of 12 projects.
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Water Projects Round 2-
Programme Duration Jan-July 2008
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PARISH
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PROJECT
NAME
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PROJECT
TYPE
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Kyuso
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Kyuso
mission
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Shallow
well
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Nzouni
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Shallow
well
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Kanini
Kaseo
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Shallow
well
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Mutonyi
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Shallow
well
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Kanzuli
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Shallow
well
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Katolo
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Shallow
well
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Kanyangi
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Kyunduani
primary School
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50m3
water tank
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Endau
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Kulukulu
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Earth
dam
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Mutito
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Matia
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Shallow
well
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Zombe
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Makongo
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Sub-surface/Sand
dam
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Makayauni
primary School
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50m3
water tank
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Nguutani
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Kimoini
kya kati
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Shallow
well
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Our
objective is to provide simple, effective technology for
sustainable access to safe water, for
communities within the Diocese of Kitui
who do not qualify for support from government
or other NGOs.
Our
aim:
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To
provide clean and viable water sources within easy
reach of communities living in marginalized regions
where other aid agencies are not operating.
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To
reduce the incidence of children missing school classes
because they have to draw water.
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To
promote hygiene and sanitation standards
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To
reduce the outbreak and spread of water borne diseases
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To
ensure project sustainability by involving the local
community in all stages from planning, through
implementation, to operation and maintenance, so that
they have a sense of ownership of their own water
project.
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To
train groups to work together in harmony
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Who
do we select for support?
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Areas
which have been excluded from larger scale development
projects due to remoteness.
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Regions
where communities travel long distances of 5km or more
each way to water points.
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Areas
with no other ongoing water projects.
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Areas
where the local communities are willing to participate
in the implementation and maintenance of the projects.
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Areas
where selection of suitable locations for water
projects can be done in close collaboration with the
local parish council, local administration, Ministry of
Water and other development agencies existing in the
parishes.
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Shallow wells
Right-
Matia well under construction (May 2008)A
Below- A typical earth dam constructed as a
joint effort between the Diocese and the community
Click to enlarge
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Water Tanks
Pictured
here is the water tank at Makayauni school, during
construction. This tank is now completed.
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Sub-surface
dam
Makongo
sub-surface /sand dam is sponsored by 3Sixty Marketing, Gowran, Kilkenny. Initially a bit
delayed (it took time to coordinate the local community who
had to tend to their farms during the rains and could not
take full participation), this project got underway in March 2008 and was
completed July 2008. Three hundred families will benefit.
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Kulukulu
Earth Dam
Kulukulu
earth dam was constructed by the community. Tools for
excavation were allocated to the community and technical advice was also given. Members of the project group
work according to a roster where each individual is required to
excavate a given amount in a single day. The work was a bit challenging
due to the late April rains which resulted to the
existing pan filling up with water thereby slowing down the
work, and making the task very onerous..
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