Kamungi Water Project progressing well
Kamungi Water Project, part of the ongoing partnership and stewardship development between Tsavo Trust and Kamungi Conservancy has been progressing well over the last couple of months.
The water project has been one of the most important aspects of Kamungi Conservacy, and the lack of water in the area is a major issue of concern. The area is semi-arid bush land, and has very little access to clean water. The Athi River to the east flows all year around, but is either very muddy or green with algae and heavily polluted as it flows out of Nairobi. The Mtito River is seasonal and community members have to dig for water most of the year. Community members have had endure daily hardships in water collection, often resorting to digging makeshift wells to reach water, and then have walk large distances carrying the water home.
A high priority goal has been to provide access to clean drinking water for Kamungi Conservancy members (not livestock due to destruction that will result). The anticipated outcome is a well maintained and managed borehole: one borehole supplying managed and accessible water supply to Ngiluni Village, with a fenced/walled protection and a managed distribution plan to members and non-members.
The water project is progressing as planned, with the succesful drilling of a bore hole in the first half of 2017. The approvals required for a bore hole to be dug are considerable, as is the risk of drilling for water without success. Following the approval for Kamungi Conservancy to drill for water, the drilling rig came to the site. Unortunately, the first attempt to drill for water was unsuccesful, thankfully the second attempt reached water. The picture below show the drilling rig drilling the bore hole.
Once the drilling was complete, the bore hole solar equipment and pump was installed. The photo below shows Kamungi Conservancy bore hole pump and solar power system, funded through Tsavo Trust by its supporters. A stone wall is being built around this unit to help protect it against elephants.
With the solar pump working, clean water is now available to the community members, who are welcome to collect water from site. The photos below show some young community members collecting clean water and carrying it home on their bicycles.
Meanwhile, digging of the delivery pipeline to Ngiluni village, 2.5km away is now under construction. Once the trench has been dug, a pipeline will be laid underground carrying the clean water directly to Ngiluni village where it will be accesible to community members. A further phase of this water project will see a large water storage tank constructed in Ngiluni village to provide a reservoir of clean water to the Kamungi Conservancy members.
This water source for the local community could not be more timely given the continual droughts that this area experiences. It will help to create awareness within Kamungi community and with this create a protective “buffer” to the TENP that forms Kamungi’s southern boundary.
This Water Project has only been possible thanks to the generous supporters of Tsavo Trust and Kamungi Conservancy, without such support this community would be struggling through another drought having to settle for unclean, polluted river water, or water from manually dug wells in sandy river beds. There is great appreciation from the Community, and this project is a good example of how a community can come together, with the help of generous financial assistance from supporters around the world along with some stewardship ‘on the ground’, to overcome a major issue.
