Clean Water & Sanitation for Kenyan Primary School

Kenya Rainwater Association (KRA)’s assessments show that 65-75% of schools and homesteads in Kenya have no access to improved water supply and sanitation. Children are often late for school due to the long distances they have to walk to collect water before class. Unfortunately, most of the rural water sources have inferior water quality leading to poor health and absence from school. Thus school performance, especially for girls, is affected. Access to improved water supply is compounded by poor sanitation. Where latrines do exist they are often in poor condition. Existing sanitary facilities rarely have separate blocks for boys and girls and have wooden bases, suffering subsidence with potentially catastrophic implications for someone trapped inside. When girls reach puberty they want more privacy and will often stay away from schools each month or drop out completely if separate facilities are not available. This aggravates girl’s low performance in schools.

In target districts 70-80% of the population live below the poverty line, which is exacerbated by poor access to safe water and sanitation. Typhoid, diarrhoea, cholera, and intestinal worm infestations have increased in recent years, particularly in low-income areas with poor sanitation services. Awareness of the linkages between health, water quality, sanitation and hygiene is also low. Even when people do understand the best methods to protect their health they often lack the facilities to implement their knowledge. Good hygiene practices reduce infections and improve health. For example, hand washing with soap after using latrines reduces diarrhoeal diseases by 30-40%.

Wangui Primary school WASH project was identified, together with other ten needy schools in the area during a situational analysis carried out by KRA in collaboration with the partnering local communities.

Wangui Primary School is located in Nyandarua County, Kenya. The climate is classified as semi-arid tropics with two rainy seasons (March-May) and (November-December). The school population is made up of 144 girls, 126 boys and 11 teachers.

Pupils fetch water from a seasonal stream about 300m away during the wet season, but there is no water during the dry spell. The water is not drinkable and is used to wet the earthen class floors. Pupils carry individual water in small bottles for personal use from home. The temporary latrines are inadequate and in poor condition and there is also no water or soap to wash hands.

The following are the main project components:

a)      Construction of 75m³ masonry rainwater storage tank including water draw-off cum hand-washing facility;

b)      Installation of guttering systems including a simple foul-flush system to divert first runoff, which collects accumulated dust, leaves and bird droppings from the roof, from the tank – improving water quality;

c)      Capacity building – community and pupils training on improved WASH and O&M to enhance project performance and sustainability.

The project implementation is yet to commence  this month and is scheduled to be completed within two months; we continue to humbly ask you for your generous contributions and good will as we embark on yet another noble initiative of bringing clean water and sanitation to Wangui Primary school.

We deeply appreciate the work that you do to serve the world and humanity!