The conversation got very real after that walk. The field officers were no longer just repeating the water and sanitation topics we had taught them, but discussing the actual problems facing the community. So, we still have many things to improve in our participatory curriculum, but having frank discussions with the community is definitely a step in the right direction for us. 

So it seems there is still some work to be done on our handwashing station design. After a month and a half of testing, we realized we had failed to account for certain forces acting upon the handwashing stations…children. We learned that children loved playing with the handwashing stations, which is great, except that they were dropping them as well. We lost 6 out of our 26 handwashing stations due to the combination of youthful energy and the gravitational pull of the Earth.

This, of course, was a bit discouraging. I definitely didn’t want to be selling shoddy handwashing stations to our community, but there was still a high demand for this product. Almost all the families that we talked to about their handwashing station were very happy with the product, and some of the families with broken handwashing stations wanted a replacement. Even people walking by our offices would see us making handwashing stations and stop by to try and purchase one.

So, we decided to invest more time into developing a better product for our community, and went back to the drawing board. In the end, we came up with a more robust and simple design which we hope will be survivable in the real world. As you can see in this video, we can drop our handwashing stations with little effect on its performance. We’ll continue to torture test our handwashing stations as we retrofit the old handwashing stations that we’ve already sold. Of course, in order to fully test this new design we’ll be selling it to another pilot group. We’ve already got 30 new orders for this new prototype and we’ll see how they fare in the real world.

For our first run with the field officers, we decided to use a sanitation and hygiene program called PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation) as a starting point. From this first run, we could see what things were working, and what things needed to be changed.  For example, it became clear that our field managers were having trouble distancing their own opinions from the conversation. It was so hard for them to not chime in with their own two cents. So, we’ll have to keep working on that one. However, an activity that was working for us was the pocket chart. This was basically a way for the field officers to anonymously (and therefore hopefully, truthfully) vote on different questions that the group was discussing. After one of the pocket chart activities on handwashing, the field officers split into two camps.  One group decided that most people in their community washed their hands, while another group was adamant that most people did NOT wash their hands in their community. Of course, it was a great challenge for our field managers to find common ground between the two camps, but it was also very insightful to see the different arguments our field officers brought up. One side claimed that people who are working in the fields all day have no access to handwashing facilities, and just take their lunch without washing hands. The other group retorted that people have the knowledge, and know how dirty hands affect their health.  Armed with that knowledge, they would most definitely wash their hands. 

So, while we will be practicing our facilitation skills some more before going into the field, we have definitely gained some interesting insights. Also, our field managers are excited about this approach to engaging the community and are eager to hone their skills even further. 

Since then, we’ve done a “beta release” of sorts with this new design. Right now, we’re only selling the hand washing stations to Nuru staff (26 units sold and counting) just in case there are any defects that we still need to address. 

We’ve also gotten a lot more feedback about how to improve the device. For example, we (ok, more like I) found out that used oil jerry cans are prized by many for it’s durability so we started making hand washing stations out of them. We have also encountered some high rollers who think that a 10L hand washing station is just too small. They need the 20L size and we were happy to oblige. We’ve also learned that the color of the bucket plays a big role. Maroon and dark blue are pretty big hits, while baby blue and teal buckets are piling up in our inventory. Also, we’ve split our field officers into two teams. One team builds the hand washing stations (the muscle), and the other team is planning the social marketing of the hand washing station (the brains).  On the brains side of the operation, the field officers are developing their own sales system for the hand washing stations and have been rehearsing how they will teach the community to properly wash their hands.

We’re hoping to continue testing until the beginning of January, and then sell to the rest of the community. It’ll be pretty good timing because that’s when farmers will harvest and get some cash money. Mo money, mo hand washing.

Hitting water at the mosque

Another one of the locations, at the Nuru Regional Training Center, also hit water and will provide water for both our daily operations and the families in the surrounding area. 

Preparing to drill at Nuru Regional Training Center

However, the last well, dug at the Nyangiti village, is still in limbo. We have hit water, but it’s only providing about 20L per hour right now. That’s barely enough for a couple families, let alone the whole village of Nyangiti. We’ve consulted with our drillers and hydrogeologist, and the running hypothesis is that a lot of the dust from drilling plugged up the cracks through which water flows during drilling,. Our hope is that as we let the water flow out through pumping, the water itself will slowly unclog the cracks in the rock. However, this is just a hypothesis, and the borehole could still end up producing only a trickle for the village. It’s been especially tough communicating this with the community, who have provided lodging and manual labor for the drillers. They were fully prepared to tackle the challenge of maintaining the well as a community, but now we’ll have to just wait and see. 

We’ve finally started drilling our well in Nyangiti, and the community has really pitched in. They’re cooking meals, inviting the drillers into their homes to stay for the night, and even provided manual labor for the drillers. However, we’re not in the clear yet. Majitech has hit some very tough rocks that are eating up fuel (they’ve used 1500 liters of diesel so far, more than twice the average amount), and we haven’t hit water at our expected depth of 90m. We’re a little nervous about this since a handpump won’t be able to work at depths below ~90m. However, our hydrogeologist is confident that we’ll hit water at 130m, and that the pressure of the water table will push the water level back above 90m. He has been working in this field for 20 years, so we’re trusting in his experience. In the meantime, we’ve been meeting with the Nyangiti well committee weekly in order to keep them up to date on the latest news so that they can inform the community and know what to expect.  

We also took this opportunity to look under the hood with the well committees in Gukipimo and Nyameteburo. Before Majitech finishes drilling, we’re taking some time to disassemble the India Mk II pump and marvel at all the shiny metal parts. We explained how the pump works, and how much it will cost for them to maintain the pumps. We also emphasized the point that they are the ones responsible for maintaining the pump, not Nuru. They asked plenty of questions about how the pump worked, and were excited to see what exactly they were collecting the well fees for. 100KSH for a cupseal, 9000KSH for a pump cylinder, etc. They even asked to set up a meeting to see how much their committee had saved, and make plans to overcome any shortcomings in savings.   

There is a great need for handwashing facilities in our community. Every time we go to eat at someone’s place, they pour water from a pitcher to wash our hands for us. Also, many of the restaurants here have a handwashing bucket in front for customers. However, the cheapest tap available in town is 250KSH, and it has a notorious reputation for breaking. At this price, very few families can afford to buy a tap for their homes. So, after fiddling around with some superglue and PVC pipes, we were able to make a tap for about 40KSH. We got some villagers together and demonstrated our little contraption and have received some good reviews so far. Although we made it clear that we’re not selling them and are only in the testing phase, 60 villagers requested that we put their names on a waiting list for the tap. They want to be the first to buy if we decide to make them. Another lady claimed “I want to clap for that tap”. Interesting response. So, as we continue to receive feedback from the community through interviews and focus groups, we’re going to start some long-term testing of our taps at our Field Officers’ and Field Mangers’ homes in order to ensure that we have a durable and well-tested product. 

Of course, for some of you savvier WatSan folks, you might be wondering about making a tippy tap. I personally love the tippy tap, but the feedback that we got from the villagers was that it was difficult to use and easy to break. Also, there seems to be something that just tickles the villagers’ fancy when you turn the tap and water just squirts out. Old men with grey beards were giggling when we demonstrated this. Go figure.

It’s almost that time of year again…drilling time! Majitech, our drillers, are set to come and drill a new well in a village called Nyangiti. So, we’ve been busy working with the community to get ready to drill. This includes having meals ready for the drillers who will be hard at work, providing lodging and security, scraping together a sand pile for cement, and hauling the water that will be needed to drill the well (a little ironic that you need water to get water). The coolest part about this is that all the grunt work has so far been done and planned by the community itself. We’ve been working with the well committee (voted by the community) which seems to understand that they are responsible for the well. They’re even planning an opening ceremony which includes a Q&A session…and fundraising! Of course, we will still help and guide this committee, but they have taken the maintenance of the well quite seriously so far. The only part that Nuru is helping out with is marketing the well, and only because the Kenyan way of marketing an event is so fun. We’re just going to ride around town with the biggest loudspeakers money can rent and blast our message of clean water and community ownership of the well. You can run, but you can’t hide.

Of course, another reason we’re so excited about the new well in Nyangiti is that our Field Officer there, Maurice, has been a great leader. He is always telling others in his community about the importance of clean water and even fetches water from the Nuru wells (keep in mind he lives 30 minutes away from the nearest well currently). Furthermore, even though the initial wells weren’t drilled near his home, he doesn’t complain about how hard it’s been to get clean water. It’s through this kind of leader that Nuru can impact a whole community, and empower it to break out of poverty. 

If everything goes according to plan….something like this will be awaiting the drillers.

We’ve been in the middle of testing the waters at Moheto lately, and there’s a sense of urgency because of the recent cholera outbreak there. We want to be able to gather data on Moheto’s water sources as quickly as possible so that we can give farmers there the information they need to make informed decisions. We also want to have this information so that we can start a dialogue with the community in order to start constructing solutions together.

However, we had a little setback this week when our hand vacuum broke in the middle of testing. According to Murphy’s Law, this hand vacuum broke in the most spectacular fashion AND while our field managers were trying to show the field officers how to do water testing. I hope our field managers didn’t lose too much credibility. As you can see in this picture, the handle broke clear off the hand vacuum. Despite valiant efforts to duct tape it back, it was beyond hope.

So, obviously, one lesson to learn here is to have a back-up vacuum. After I rushed in an order of 2 hand vacuums, I thought about different ways we could still salvage our testing timeline. After racking my brain for a bit, I thought about flipping a bicycle hand pump. There are a lot of bicycle pumps around town, but it was already dark when I sat down to mull over this problem. There wouldn’t be enough time for me to go into town, jerry rig a bike pump, AND go collect test waters with my field managers the next morning. I would have to make it at night. So, sheepishly, I asked our teammates to see if they had any hand pumps. Next thing I know, Lindsay, our Health Program Manager, busts out with a slick looking Serfas handpump that had been accidentally left in her bag. You can see the results for yourself in the video.

Thank you Serfas for making pumps that can be dismantled! Pretty high quality build too, I might add. But, the important thing is that we’re still on track to share our test data with the farmers, and start talking about solutions together.

So we (FT5) just got back from a relaxing weeklong break. What made it even better was knowing I had left the program in good hands. How did I know? The Friday before we left, I sat down for some 1/1’s with my team and couldn’t help but see how much they’ve grown as leaders. Here’s a quick blow-by-blow account of how each 1/1 went.

Rosa: This 1/1 actually didn’t start off too well, because I could tell that she was really tired. I asked her if anything was wrong, and she said that she had stayed up until 1am the night before. I was about to launch into a self-righteous tirade about being prepared for work when she cut in by explaining that she had gone to her neighbors’ houses to teach them how to boil water. Rosa’s area, Moheto, recently had an outbreak of cholera, and her neighbors, scared by the outbreak, found out that Rosa had been giving trainings in the area along with the Health team. So, they asked if she could come over and teach them how to boil properly. Rosa agreed, even if it was the middle of the night

Elias: Our focus lately has been water testing and preparing for the presentation of the results to the community. However, he told me that he felt another of his main tasks was to motivate the WatSan reps to take responsibility for educating everyone in their village. He understood that he could not change the behaviors of his village by himself, that he must also lead and equip others who are willing to be change agents with him.

Eliza: She started the 1/1 by saying how much she had learned through Nuru, and she didn’t just mean learning about increasing her crop yield by 300% (which she did). She said that when Nuru first came she thought “oh, I can’t talk to those mizungos (slang for white folk). I don’t know English and I’m not well educated”. Now, she is a field manager of her area and is confident in her ability to lead her team to affect change in their village. She claimed that “it’s all about learning and improving” with Nuru. When she first started learning how to use the computer, she thought “hmm, I thought only college-educated folk could use these things”. But now she realizes that she has the potential to do so much more, and plunged right into hunting and pecking on the keyboard (home-row keys will be taught soon). 

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about finishing the baseline for Nyamaharaga. However, we’re not interested in just collecting data. We want to begin conversations with the community so that we can create solutions tukapamoja (“together” in Swahili). So, we’ve been presenting our results to the community, showing them just how contaminated many of their water sources are.  We start off with a video (starring yours truly) showing how we collect and test the water samples.

Afterwards, we show them pictures of some sample test results, giving them a crash course on how we determine the “dirtiness” of water sources 

Finally, we pass out a map that has all the water sources in the area plotted out, and we tell them how “dirty” each source is.

This way, they can see how dirty the sources that they’ve been using are. The goal is to hopefully drive home the fact that they are gambling every time they drink from these sources without first treating their water.

This also provides a great forum for receiving their feedback, hearing things form their point of view. Many thanked us for presenting these results. They had believed the water sources to be safe since their parents and grandparents had always used them.

Of course, many of them also asked the next obvious question “so…are yall going to drill a well for us?”. Hearing this question makes me both excited and scared at the same time. There have been many attempts at sustainable handpump projects in the world, and many of them have failed. Some fail because there is no willingness to pay, while others fail because people didn’t recognize the benefits of the pump and resorted to their traditional water sources. The trick now is to see if the people of Nyamaharaga are really ready for drill a well. Are they ready to take on the responsibility of maintaining the well? 

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the desperate need that we saw in a place called Moheto. People were literally drinking from muddy pits that they had dug into the ground. Since the land there is mostly flat, these pits contained stagnant water that was a breeding ground for bacteria. However, this past week, we found out just how serious the situation in Moheto was as reports of an outbreak of cholera surfaced.  There are now 20 suspected cholera-related deaths as government officials are scrambling to test and confirm these cases. It seems the timing of our water trainings in this area was pretty good. First, our team immediately switched the focus of our baseline to finding the water sources suspected of cholera. Once we had pinpointed these suspected sources, we went around advertising the training that we were offering in the area. Some families that lost a loved one even invited us into their homes to talk and learn more about how they could protect themselves. I couldn’t imagine being in their situation, having to cope with grief while at the same time trying desperately to figure out how to protect their children.  Of course, most of our staff has been in their shoes and could connect with and console them. Once again, there was no way that I could have done the same job as our own staff. There was no way that I could understand their situation. Once the villagers knew about our trainings, we teamed up with the Health Program in order to provide a comprehensive training.  It was a tag-team in which WatSan taught people how to treat their water in order to prevent cholera, and Health taught them how to treat loved ones if they did catch cholera. Teaching one without the other just wouldn’t make sense, and it’s another reason why Nuru’s holistic model can work well. 

This road basically washes all sorts of trash and feces straight into what used to be a springbox (it’s currently broken and people fetch water from a stagnant pond next to it). I can still remember the smell at this location, as I watched insects flit around on the water surface. Of course, since animals could freely drink here as well, flies were buzzing around the fresh cow patties next to the water source. I couldn’t imagine having to drink the water as well. However, we’ve already finished our training sessions here in Nyamaharaga and villagers are learning to boil their water or treat it with WaterGuard (a chlorine solution). 

Although it’s presented through Google maps on this blog, we’re using Google Earth in order to display all the different data that we collect at the water points. For example, using this website, we can convert the interview data from our Google forms into a map which plots out the locations with the greatest number of users, reported sicknesses, or even if the people there are boiling their water or not. Of course, gathering this information is only half the story. Once we have located the water sources and tested them for fecal contamination (394 seems like a no-brainer), we will present our findings to the community in order to hear their feedback and construct a solution together with them.

However, in Moheto, the only things we’ve seen so far are stagnant springs in which muddy water is mixed with algae. There have been no attempts to protect any of the water sources, as cattle and human alike drink from the same spring. All of the water sources we’ve seen so far look like the one in the photograph: 

Of course, several issues make the problem even worse.  First, our initial surveys suggest that no one boils their water here. There are many reports of typhoid and diarrhea.  Furthermore, many of these water sources are near tobacco fields in which extensive fertilizers and pesticides are used. In other words, even if they did boil, they would probably still have to deal with the chemical contamination of their water.  

However, what really got me was seeing an algae filled pond right next to this primary school. The kids here were using the pond as their main source of water. 

Let’s try to end this on a positive note. We’re already starting water training lessons in which we show the villagers just how dangerous their water is. After that, we’ll practically show them how to properly filter and boil their water, so that at least they will have the knowledge to prevent typhoid and diarrhea. Of course, we’ll be working with and listening from the community throughout in order to ensure that we can build a sustainable water solution for Moheto. 

Our field managers have gotten the water training sessions down to a science. They are now completely responsible for running the trainings in our new locations. They schedule and coordinate amongst themselves to ensure that everything is prepared for all 5 locations. It’s pretty tricky considering these locations are all about 45 minutes apart from each other, and one of the lessons requires them to scout out firewood and water beforehand. On top of that, they are great trainers. They poke and prod the audience for answers, engaging them with their own Kenyan version of call and response. As I’ve said before, it only makes sense to empower the villagers to end extreme poverty. They are the ones who can empathize and connect with the audience. 

We’ve also been gathering feedback throughout the lessons so that we can continue improving. We do this both by quizzing the villagers on what they’ve learned (they get a kick out of arguing with each other about what the “right” answer is), and asking them what areas of weakness they see in the lessons. As our feedback begins to trickle in, we’ve learned that the villagers are eager to learn even more. One thing we keep hearing is that they want to see the actual bacteria in the water that is making them sick. Obviously, this will take some creativity to implement in our next round of lessons, but it’s cool that they want to learn and see more. However, we’re also hearing that they like the “practicality” of our lessons. For example, we teach them to filter their water through folded cloths before boiling. Why is this better? NERD ALERT: 

“The pore size range in old cloth is 100–150 μm, but about 20 μm if the cloth is folded four to eight times. The holes allow water to pass but retain particles and pathogens >20 μm. Straining through this cloth has been shown to be effective in filtering out the plankton to which cholera bacteria may attach themselves, therefore reducing the risk of cholera. This simple method can also filter out many helminths and their eggs and larvae.” – CAWST Fact Sheet.

So we’ve definitely got room for improvement in our training sessions, but we’ve got some things going for us that we can build off of as well. I can’t wait to see what the Field Managers will do with this feedback as we sit down and plan out our next round of water lessons. 

WatSan Program Manager Matt Lee discovered an old well in the community that no longer works. Learn how Nuru does things differently so that our wells are not only properly maintained, but involve the community so that they will last for the long haul.

Don’t get me wrong, they have their fair share of “needs improvement” categories, just like me, but when I see their humility and eagerness to learn, I can’t help but get pumped up about their potential. During our one-on-ones, when I asked what concerns they had about the WatSan program, they all said that they want me to give them feedback in their weak areas in order to improve. Wow, that was textbook.

There are several “mission critical” tasks coming up that I’m excited for the WatSan team get involved in, including processing our baseline data to determine water needs in the new locations, combing through feedback from our current water training lessons, and designing our next round of water training lessons.

However, if Nuru is to be truly sustainable, our team needs to be more than just proficient at crossing off items from a checklist and using fancy gadgets (as good as they are on both accounts). They need to lead and inspire the people in their program. Our team will soon be diving into a leadership development workbook. We’ll be talking about what it really means to be a servant leader - a concept that conflicts the traditional view, in many parts of the world, that leadership is equivalent to power and privileges.

As an engineer who just wants to crunch numbers all day, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m getting pretty excited about starting a leadership development workbook with my team. Egah (the Kenyan equivalent of OMG!) 

One of the main priorities during my time in Kenya is to develop a program to educate the community on the dangers of dirty water, and how to get clean water. Some die-hard Nuru fans out there may be asking, wait, didn’t we already do training?  And you would be right. However, we are also committed to constantly listening to the community and implementing the feedback that we get.

One of Nicole’s big findings during her time on the ground was that our training did not reach all of the community. So she rounded up our staff to learn some best practices for teaching WatSan through a training by CAWST and began to prepare a new round of water training. This past week, the rubber met the road as we launched Water Training 2.0 (new name suggestions happily accepted) with a video called “Prescription for Health”, which was  filmed in the 80’s. Yes, that’s right, the 80’s. Although it was filmed before my birth, this film does an amazing job of depicting the dangers of dirty water. Afterwards, we had a poster session (a nifty technique we picked up from CAWST) in which the villagers walked around the room answering three questions:  “What did you learn from the video?”, “What in the video was familiar to you?”, and “What hopes do you have for the community?”. The responses we got opened my eyes. “We didn’t know other parts of the world had the same problems with water.” “ I didn’t know that water could be so dangerous.” “I want to eradicate all diarrhea in my community.” It seemed a lot of the villagers realized for the first time the importance of their role to teach their groups about the dangers of dirty water. 

But the villagers didn’t just write down thoughts and feelings on posters. They all began asking us for more showings to invite their neighbors to. Motivated villagers? Check. The following week, we had 60 villagers crammed into a tiny church crowded around a 15” laptop straining for a glimpse of the video. Afterwards, Nicole asked Abraham, one of our friends in a Nuru village, what he thought of the video. He replied “Nicole, I have learned a lot today. To be honest, we have been drinking from the river, but I never knew it was so dangerous. From now on, we will only drink clean water from the deep wells”.  Giving villagers the knowledge to make good choices for themselves? Check. We know there is a lot of hard work still ahead of us, but it’s encouraging to know that we’re already starting to make a difference.

Leaving Kuria is always hard to do. But, I’m leaving absolutely delighted with the progress we’ve made, the direction we’re headed and the dedication and talent that my colleague Matt Lee, the new Water and Sanitation Program Manager, will bring to the program. The past 6 months I’ve been focusing my efforts on three things (for more on how I arrived at these three, an earlier post 

• The well buy-in program

• Mentoring and managing our local WatSan Managers 

• Training and empowering our volunteer WatSan Representatives 

To meet the needs in these areas, we’ve launched some exciting new solutions that I’m really proud of. I’ll share some of the highlights of the first two items. But, I’ll save the third item for Matt, the co-creator of our new Water Training package, and let him share more about how we’re reaching farmers by showing videos and bringing our lessons out to the field.  Stay tuned for his debut blog post next week! 

The Well Buy-In Program

In many rural villages in the Kuria District and throughout Kenya, the surface water is scarce and polluted but the groundwater is plentiful and clean. This led us to consider deep wells as a clean water solution. Admittedly deep wells require a large upfront investment, but they provide a long-term year-round water supply with limitless potential for a community-wide distribution system once electricity arrives and infrastructure is developed. 

I’ll be honest, we got off to a bit of a rocky start with our first four deep wells. Features of our first round of deep wells included a well committee and a small user fee to cover future maintenance costs, which form a solid foundation for leadership and financial sustainability of the wells.  It was a good first attempt, but we hoped for a greater level of community ownership. 

Contrast that with our second round, the Nyangiti well. (We made the strategic decision to drill one well and experiment further and try to increase community buy-in, which is integral to sustainability of the wells). We haven’t even drilled yet, and the community has already formed a well committee, they’ve gotten commitments from over 50 families who want to buy clean water, they’ve collected sand and bricks for construction, and they’ve raised 900 KSH to feed the drillers- that’s a lot of ugali. 

What are we doing differently this time? We have launched our latest innovation- a Proposed Well Project Agreement, inspired by our friends at Bridgewater as I shared in my recent post.  This Agreement facilitates a cost-sharing arrangement between the community and Nuru. The onus is on the community to form a well committee, provide local materials, get a commitment from potential users, and ensure that the well is accessible to everyone in the community, among other important things. Now, for the easy part- drilling the well…

Mentoring and managing our local WatSan Managers 

We’ve found great value in using job requirements, professional expectations and performance evaluations. We agree James Autry author of The Servant Leader that these tools are not just corporate paperwork, but can be “a tool to fine-tune understandings and provide assurance (the servant leadership way).” Using these tools here definitely hasn’t been easy.  It has required a lot of training for our local staff and commitment to giving constructive feedback, which can be exhausting and takes tremendous courage. But, when done well and consistently these tools provide a profound opportunity for growth and transformation.

A few examples: 

Warning letters have helped us remove bad performers who were dragging the team down and to motivate others to meet or exceed expectations. 

Bi-annual performance evaluations give our staff opportunities to improve and make choices about their future with Nuru. 

The job responsibilities and professional expectations must be stated in plain language and translated into Kiswahili. 

Constructive feedback has definitely increased around here and Nuru is growing a whole lot more than maize, we’re growing solid leaders! I’m grateful that the Water and Sanitation Program is in good hands and I have faith that our local staff will take the program to a whole new level and bring clean water and sanitation to Kuria.

A very brief summary of the major results of our Rainwater Catchment Pilot Project: 

• Here in Kuria it rains a lot of rain most months of the year (40-70 inches per year), but sees little to no rain during 3-4 months. 

• A few days of storage during the dry season was about all we could get out of the units. Of course restricted use could change that, but that doesn’t seem to be sustainable according to the community. 

• Our rainwater catchment units aren’t able to solve the water problem during the dry months.

• The units are expensive (over $150) and not affordable for a family in this community. 

What do wells have to do with this? 

If you haven’t been following this blog, we implemented a well buy-in program at the four deep wells we built in August where a small fee is charged per bucket of clean water (2 KSH per 20 Liters) to pay for future maintenance on the pump. The fee is cheaper than any available water treatment method and less than the cost of getting sick from drinking water contaminated with feces. We’ve watched as well revenues have fluctuated during the past 9 months. They were high during the first harvest at the well located in a village near the Kenyan/Tanzania border. But, then when the maize market switched to Kenya customers decreased (no more thirsty loader crews and restaurants in need of water).  We also noticed another very interesting pattern that perked our ears- on a plot of rainfall and well revenues, the trend is clear- well revenues drop during high rainfall. 

Where people were getting water during the rainy season? The local springs and rivers are very contaminated, which people are aware of after our trainings.

We asked around and found out that most people are able to get all their water needs met by capturing rainfall from their roofs using what they call “traditional rainwater catchments”, essentially a few foot strip of corrugated metal wired to their roof of the same material. During the rains, someone runs out to switch out 100-Liter plastic storage containers or old oil barrels until all the containers in the house have been filled up. We weren’t surprised that people were using these traditional rainwater catchments- that’s where we got the idea in the first place. We were surprised to learn that they were able to meet their water needs using this system. And, it’s not really fair to say that they fully are. More or bigger storage containers would certainly make their lives easier by eliminating the need to switch out barrels in the pouring rain. 

But, we learned an important lesson- the simple traditional units are working pretty well for people and our nice improved versions are expensive and potentially not a ton more effective. Our pilot rainwater catchment units have great benefits- 1,000 Liters of storage provides a few days of water during the drought, gutters stretching the length of a the roof quickly transport a lot of water to the tank, and the PVC pipe with cap first flush system effectively keeps the dustier water from entering the tank. But, even the nicer taps made in England (we tried taps made in China first that quickly failed) are showing signs of needing a good amount of ongoing maintenance. And the few days worth of water the large tank gets us doesn’t justify the cost (1,000 tanks cost about $100). 

Of course there are numerous potential cost-cutting alternatives that we’ve considered- building concrete tanks, using smaller tanks, using more bricks and mud and less cement in the foundation, and eliminating the first flush system, just to name a few.  The concrete tank idea has been tried a lot locally and we often see very large abandoned, cracked concrete tanks. We’re still exploring the cost/benefit of the smaller tank option. We implemented the cement reduction idea and it saved a decent amount. Eliminating the first flush could work since there is very little to no fecal matter on the roofs, the wire mesh in the drain box catches the big stuff and any dirt that gets in end up on the bottom of the tank since the tap is elevated a few inches. However, this would save us just a few bucks, or shillings. After a good amount of analysis by us and our friends at Engineers Without Borders, we have accepted the unfortunate reality that there are few ways to cut costs that don’t seriously compromise the long-term sustainability of the rainwater catchment unit. 

And after the realization about the traditional rainwater catchments meeting people’s needs, we found that the traditional style is tough to beat in terms of cost/benefit. And, maybe we don’t need to try to win… Maybe a better solution is to train the community members who aren’t using traditional rainwater catchments how to build them. And/or if storage is the limited factor (since even a tiny strip of bent metal can collect a whole lot of water during the serious rain storms here in Kurialand), maybe selling or loaning out larger tanks would help people most. 

Our household rainwater catchment pilot project has done its job well- it produced data that allowed us to make a wise choice about how to move forward.  And from here it looks like we won’t be building loads of household rainwater catchment units any time soon. Instead, a better move might be to focus on increasing the impact of the traditional systems that already exist in the community. 

How did they do that? This video left me with goose bumps. What a compelling way to communicate how the water that we rely on to sustain us can be an agent of death- dirty water kills more people than wars have. But, there is hope! According to the World Health Organization (2004):

• Improved water supply reduces diarrhea morbidity by 21%.
• Improved sanitation reduces diarrhea morbidity by 37.5%.

This is why I’ve chosen to work in a field where poop and diseased water are the main topics of conversation.

In our quest to improve our community water training program, I traveled with Nuru’s Water and Sanitation managers to Nakuru, Kenya to learn from the best: CAWST. Little did I know that our trip would have a second purpose: to discover the next step for our well buy-in program. (Learn about what we were doing in Nakuru, Kenya:here

The goal of Nuru’s well buy-in program is to meet the community’s need for clean water with a solution that’s owned and maintained by the community themselves. The first prototype of our well buy-in program was a step in the right direction, but like all prototypes, it requires testing and iteration.  In just 10 months, our four deep wells have had an incredible impact: diseases have been reduced, hours and hours have been saved walking to distant sources (one woman testified: “I have forgotten where the river is”), the need for expensive and tedious boiling has been eliminated, and girls are back in school. And our well committees are actively engaged in troubleshooting issues at the wells and holding the well attendants accountable for faithfully collecting user fees. Despite our early successes, we can continue to grow in the area of leadership and financial sustainability. Before we implement large numbers of projects, we need to get this right.

My Kenyan team and I have been brainstorming, asking questions and gathering information in the field to better understand the needs of the community and improve upon our first prototype. We generated multiple possible solutions to increase user levels and do a better job of engaging the community in our well projects from the inception stage.   A theme emerged: We need to require MORE from the community BEFORE wells are drilled. 

We had gathered the ingredients for the second iteration of our well buy-in program, but were missing the framework for how it all fits together. Then, during our time in Nakuru, we had a chance encounter with the fine folks at The Bridge Water Project, and we found our answer.

The Bridge Water Project is a team of Kenyan drillers who complete a well project every week! Our new friends told us about the success of their cost-sharing arrangement where the community is required to provide 20% of the cost of the well project in the form of local materials, accommodation for the drillers and security BEFORE Bridge Water will mobilize to drill the well. This results in higher community participation, which is exactly what Nuru is looking for.

Our managers really appreciate how a cost-sharing agreement clearly lays out the requirements of both the organization and community and provides a tangible way for the community to demonstrate their commitment to the project. After this discussion our team agreed that this would be a great next step in making our well buy-in program truly sustainable. This week I’m drafting a cost-sharing agreement, which will be integrated into our next well project.  Stay tuned! 

Running an effective Water and Sanitation Program requires lots of data collection. We need to know:

• Are our staff and volunteer educators actually teaching Nuru farmers groups how to remove disease-causing germs from their water?

• Are people actually practicing the water treatment practices they’ve learned?

• Is the attendant at the deep well so that people can purchase clean water? 

• How much water can be stored in the tanks installed for our rainwater catchment pilot project?

• How has the recent rainfall impacted the stored rainwater catchment tank volumes and deep well revenues?

Collecting such data requires inspection forms, attendance records…PAPER- stacks of paper in an endless queue awaiting data entry in a computer. This paper trail is so uninviting. When we look at it, we think, “Tomorrow.” Sadly, our data collection investments often yield little to no returns due to this dilemma between spending time on life-saving interventions or sitting in front of a computer entering numbers into a spreadsheet. 

Insert Nuru staff wielding inexpensive Nokia camera cell phones loaded with an internet browser. 

This what Eliza, a Water and Sanitation Field Manager, thinks about Nuru’s use of mobile technology in the field: “When you are using the phone, the information is submitted immediately. There is no need for writing, transferring to the computer or discussing anything. Instead of sitting for about one hour [in meetings submitting forms, discussing data, etc], the phone is doing it in 5 seconds.” 

You’ve heard the line, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Here in Kuria, those words could be any mix of three languages: Kikuria (I know greetings and a few lines), Kiswahili (I know enough to get around) or English (British English, that is, of which I’m gaining familiarity with). With one photo sent via email over the phones, I know exactly what has taken place. There is no need for phones calls filled with miscommunications due to language barriers, etc. 

So, when Eliza sent me two photos- one of her colleague Daniel measuring depth in a plastic rainwater catchment tank and another of him recording the depth in the rainfall gauge I knew that she had trained him how to record those two pieces of data so that data collection would continue while she was away for a week with her fellow Water and Sanitation managers attending a course on Health Promotion for Trainers in Nakuru, Kenya. 

As  Eliza said, “When you send that email with a photo, they will accept it as true.” 

She also has an interesting insight about taking attendance at important trainings using Google forms on the phones. “Even the Water and Sanitation Representatives [volunteer community educators] have come earlier. They know that the phone records the time that I submit whether they are on time, late or absent. So, they don’t even ask me to change their records anymore. With the phones, there is no cheating.”

The benefits of moving pilot project monitoring, project inspection forms, training/meeting attendance forms to Google forms loaded to the phones have been numerous:

• We save time- data moves from a phone directly to a spreadsheet in seconds

• We get more data and better data- our staff love using the phones to submit data.

• We can discuss important topics in meetings- no more precious time wasted submitting reports and deciphering marks on rain-soaked papers.

And speaking of stacks of paper, I am staring at a few scraps of paper containing the GPS points of water sources and sickness reports in the communities we’ve scaled to. Mapping those points to get an idea of the needs in those communities has been on my to-do list for weeks. I’m definitely moving our Water and Sanitation baseline data collection process to the phones!