Diary of a Water Project: Challenges and Successes (the last 6 months of life and work)
1st April 2019
Water. Precious water. Where I am sitting in my house in Ngurunit, I can here the engines of the water driller off in the distance by the river as they work to finish the borehole well that has been in process for over a week. Within the second day we hit water, lots of it. Excitement. Despite this, it has taken another 6 to finally stabilize the hole with casings and get to the point where we can almost do a test pump. The soil near the river proved to be full of lots of little rocks at the top of the drill and lots of loose sandy soil as they went down. By Wednesday they had reached 62 meters deep. Only to wake up Thursday morning and find it back to 11 meters. So another method was employed to put temporary casing down to 18 meters to stabilize the sides so it could be cleared out again. As not enough steel had been brought, this meant a delay while it was fetched from far away. Then another two days saw the fuel run out. Another run for supplies. By Sunday, finally, the well was behaving and the permanent casing were almost all in. Today is the finishing touches on casings, packing sides with gravel and cleaning out the borehole before a test pump. This project has been two years in the planning. It feels so good to see it almost done. Half done I should say. This is just one of the two wells we have planned for our Rotary project. This one in Ngurunit and one near Maralal. That one still has a few steps to go before we can move in for the drilling. Soon, but not quite.
Of course, the drilling part is just the first stage here in Ngurunit too. We still have to put on the permanent pump. We will put a hand pump for starters. This also involves training of maintenance people in the community. And later in the month, we will have a community sanitation and hygiene training. But the first step was getting the water. For that, it seems we were very successful. Testing of the water still remains, but at first observations, it seems we have an abundance of fresh, clean water. The stuff of life!
23rd April 2019
Water. Precious water. We got the pump on the well and getting water out of it for community use. Yay!! The analysis of the water taken at the beginning of the month came back with good news in terms of being safe for human consumption. So wonderful. Though now we are discovering one side effect of the parameter for iron being on the high side. It is not unsafe for people, but it is causing an issue with water clarity. The water pumps out as clear as can be. Then, within a half hour, the high iron content in the water reacts with the air, oxidizing into a reddish color to the water. Cloudy red. I will have to explore this phenomenon and see if we can do anything about it.
27th May 2019
What an amazing weekend I have had in all things water! Rotary Maralal and our partners, The Samburu Project, held the Ngurunit Well Management Committee training for pump maintenance and the Community Sanitation and Hygiene Workshop on Saturday. We had been having some issues with the pump and these were sorted out by Paul, the well technician of Samburu Project when teaching the committee how to fix and maintain the well in good condition. Now the pump is so easy and so much water comes out. Amazing. It still turns red after a bit, but I have done a lot of research on this and find it is not a problem or dangerous. I even know of another well in Ngurunit that did this. The high iron content in the water is actually not a bad thing, I’ve been told, for especially the women and children. We were able to discuss this in the community workshop and everyone is happy that the well is now working perfectly.
Then on Sunday many members of The Rotary Club of Maralal and the Ngurunit community had a well handover ceremony and party. The Samburu Project staff also attended. There was a lot of singing and dancing by the women. The elders blessed the well in the traditional way. Walking around and around the well praying and pouring out a bit of milk as they went. Then afterwards, everyone got together for tea and sitting together in community enjoying the fact that they had a new source of clean water. So well number one is done. Now we are starting to try to move forward on the second planned well for a community called Lare Oibor. This one is near Maralal. Already having a few issues on the permit to begin, but fingers crossed that we will get started soon. On we go!!
11th July, 2019
Wow, what adventures I have had the last month and a bit. I left Ngurunit after the well handover ceremony and basically traveled continuously until I arrived in America on June 5th. As usual, a whirlwind visit of the USA. My daughter was doing a summer class at university until the end of June, so I wandered around doing lots of things – work and play. Enjoyed time with my parents. My middle brother brought cake over just after I arrived so we could celebrate Mom’s end of May birthday. I had just missed it so was nice to have the laid back party. I then went canoeing on the Black River with my eldest brother. Continued on down to Madison to move my son out of his apartment for the last time there as his life path is taking him to other parts of the world now. Then back to Northern Wisconsin for a couple days with my best friend and her daughter visiting from California before I then headed to the WARP (Weave a Real Peace) conference being held in Washington DC where I was one of the keynote speakers as concerns my work with the Ngurunit Basket Weavers. I also hauled along baskets and had a sales table set up. Such an amazing weekend. My son went with me for a couple nights to see DC with some other special friends of ours before I sent him off to Canada for work. At the WARP conference I met so many wonderful people and got to spend a lot of time with my amazing friend Janice. After a Sunday lunch with a group of friends living in DC who used to work in Kenya, I flew back to Wisconsin to pick up my daughter for her summer break and we continued on to Kenya.
We arrived beginning of July to meet up with our Australian buddy, Anna. So fun. This brings me back to the theme of Water! The three of us traveled as quickly as we could North towards Ngurunit where my husband was awaiting us. We had plans to meet our Samburu Project USA office partners from Los Angeles who wanted to see the new Ngurunit well. After passing through Maralal to pick up all the dogs and some hard, fast travel, we made it to Ngurunit on evening of the 4th. A couple days rest and partner Linda and the Samburu Project team from L.A. and Kenya made it to our village on the 7th July. Visited the pump, took lots of promotion pictures and morning of the 8th they headed out again. One issue we discussed was the issue we were having with getting the second well in Lare Oibor started. It was supposed to have been started while I was in USA, but once we got the permit, an issue of community well site came up. The previously selected drilling spot was rejected by the community for the reason of someone claiming it as private land, so we had to start over a bit. Still the same community, just needed a better spot that was communally accessible. So, to that end, we had a community meeting planned with Rotary Club of Maralal, Samburu Project and the Lare Oibor community members along with the area leaders planned for 10th July. As Anna had to be to her airplane back to Australia by the 9th in Nairobi, she and I jumped into my car also on the 8th, leaving daughter, husband and the dogs in Ngurunit, to take a road cruise through Nanyuki, stay the night there, send Anna off for Nairobi bus morning of the 9th and I continue back to Maralal in time for community meeting on 10th. Wow. Quite the sentence. Quite the trip. Around 500 Km and 9 hours of driving in 2 days!! Fun fun. I made it and had a good time doing it.
Yesterday I managed to get everyone together for the community meeting to sort out the issues of placement for the well drilling. We walked the area, made plans with Samburu Project for bringing the Hydrologist for re-survey within the month of July, and assured the community that we would get them a well done as soon as possible. More challenges will be had, I am sure. We will keep moving forward.
23rd July, 2019
The hydrologist came to Maralal. Started the survey for finding the new drilling site for Lare Oibor. Finished only two of the possible places and it started pouring rain!! Not good for a water source survey. That messed up all the readings. So, in the end, we had to stop the exercise and postpone it until things dry up. Most likely until the end of August as it seems the mid-year rain cycle has just started up. This is the story of life here in Northern Kenya. Flood or famine. Too much water or not enough. For the most part, it is not enough. Such an irony that when we are trying to create more water sources, that water gets in the way of doing that. Anyway, such is life at times. We did have a nice visit with the Samburu Project team as they all came up to Maralal with the hopes of getting pictures of the survey process. They were disappointed on that with having to cancel the survey. We all had a nice lunch and parted ways. I will be going to USA again mid-August so will miss when the hydrologist comes back, but other members of my Rotary club are also involved so all will be well. (pun intended..hahaha).
16th November, 2019
I went to USA mid-August to beginning of September. The most exciting part of that trip was attending my 35th Highschool reunion. Amazing. Time does fly. I also dropped my daughter, youngest child, at her second year of University. That is amazing too. Children grow up so fast. Back in Kenya, I found that the survey was done the very end of August, with a bit of rain issues again, but got some results. After that we started making plans for the drilling. Unfortunately, time has been flying by with no success on that front! One plan after the other keeps falling through. Over two months back in Kenya and still no closer to starting the drilling at Lare Oibor than when I arrived. In the Maralal area, it has never really stopped raining since the end of July. Very weird weather. I am still pushing. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks we will get it started. I really want to give the Lare Oibor community a well for Christmas.
On the other hand, rain in Ngurunit was scarce for many months. The long rains of May were almost non-existent. By August the stream had completely dried up. The new Rotary well was our main source of water, red or not. By the time I got back to Ngurunit in mid-September, it was almost the only source of water in the whole community. It has been a great blessing. People and livestock were depending on it. I took car-loads of water containers to the well every couple days to supply our house and the goat camp. When we left Ngurunit the beginning of October, drought was hitting hard. Without the Rotary well, things would have been much worse.
Then, second week of October, the heavens opened. It has been raining non-stop in Ngurunit since then. Maralal also. Most of Kenya really. When I went back to Ngurunit on the 25th October for my birthday, I found our compound a beautiful green lawn. Amazing. I have never seen so much grass there. From dry, brown land to lush, green environment. I will always be surprised by how quickly things can change. The river is flowing. Plenty of water for now. Despite that, in a few quick months, everything can be dry again, so the Rotary Ngurunit well is still, and always will be, a blessing. Now back in Maralal for a bit, my major work is to continue pushing for getting the Lare Oibor well done before the dry season sets in for them and people start to struggle for a source of water again. Forward, step by step.
