Erankau Community Water Supply
Project Context:
Erankau (which means a Whistling Thorn tree) is a remote community situated in North Eastern Kajiado. The landscape is very hilly and the roads are covered with exposed rocks and deep rain-worn gullies – making transport into the tank site quite a challenge. Currently the only other source of water is from a seasonal river and a shallow dam. Water – and especially clean and safe drinking water – is the biggest challenge that this community faces.
There are approximately 57 Maasai homesteads (Bomas) in the area with each homestead containing up to six households. An average of 6 people live in each household, meaning there are approx. 2,000 people within the area, and all of them will benefit from this water supply. Approximately a quarter of this number are children under 10 years old.
This community is centred around the local church – St Faith’s Erankau – and there is a small primary school of 150 pupils.
Project Details:
During a visit to this community on Wednesday 5th February 2025, it was agreed that a 100m³ above ground water storage tank will be constructed adjacent to the existing church building to catch rain water through a gutter system and store the water during the rainy season for use during the dry seasons.
That means 100,000ltr of water will be available for distribution by a community-selected Water Management Committee – thus ensuring equitable distribution across the whole community. Water Drops will carry out suitable training for this Committee and offer any necessary support.
All the pupils and their teachers in the local primary school will also benefit from this water supply as they will receive 10,000 ltrs every month from the storage tank.
The work on the construction began on Friday 7th February 2025 and was fully completed on Monday 10th March 2025 when we formally handed the water storage tank over to the local community.
The work carried out by Water Drops is as follows:
- Construction of a block-built 100m³ water storage tank on the agreed site.
- Design and fit a rain catchment gutter system across the church building to ensure safe passage for the rainwater into the tank.
- Fix down-pipes and cleaning chambers from the gutter system into the water tank, to ensure only clean water pours into the tank.
- Construct a water draw-off pipe-stand for easy access to the water.
Project Costs:
| No | Description | Estimated Cost £ | Expenditure £ |
| 1 | Carrying out all necessary works to complete the project as planned. | 13,350.00 | 12,106.00 |
Some significant savings were made with transport of bulk materials and with a favourable exchange rate, we were able to bring this project in under budget. This frees up some funding which will be used for our next project. This is good stewardship of the financial resources that we receive in Water Drops.
Conclusion:
It can be hard to believe that there are so many people across the world who are still faced with the daily challenge of trying to find clean and safe drinking water. Our challenge is to do something about it! Seeing the delight within this community when they realised that they now have clean water makes all our efforts worthwhile.
Many of the local women – who will be the main users of this water – helped provide water for the building process from a nearby shallow dam.
One of the women’s community leaders made this comment:
“Now that we have clean water nearby we don’t have to travel many miles searching for water. Words are not enough to express our gratitude to everyone who helped with this project. This water will have a huge impact on all of us who live in this area.”
They expect more than 30 people will come to this tank every day – and along with the water sent to the school – the benefit will reach into every home. Just a few weeks ago this would not have been possible, so there is a real sense of achievement across the whole community.
Building the tank is the easy part of this process – securing the funding is the difficult part – so we, and the entire community of Erankau, are incredibly grateful to everyone who contributed in any way to make this dream become a reality.