Imaroro Community Shallow Dam
Project Context:
Imaroro lies about 50 miles east of Kajiado Town in south-east Kenya and is set amongst rolling hills and open savannah grassland. The Imaroro community has around 300 households with a total of about 1,000 people – all of whom now access clean and safe drinking water from the recently installed borehole and storage tank. However, the volume of water available from the borehole has not been sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the people and their livestock.
Project details:
The community has therefore agreed that the borehole water will be solely for domestic use, and this new shallow dam will be used entirely for their livestock. There are very few options within this area for livestock watering points, so we constructed the dam within the same area as the existing borehole and storage tank. We hired an excavator to carry out the work under our supervision. We estimated a total of 80 hours work was required at a cost of £50 per hour. We were amazed, and delighted, that we received the full amount. The excavator used 78 of these hours, so we had a balance to complete all the levelling work that was needed.
Now this community has a source of clean and safe drinking water for use by people, as well as their livestock. Approximately 4,000 cattle and 6,000 goats will have access to this water source and around 1,000 people will be using the borehole water.
Associated with provision of a water source is the concept of WaSH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene). This is an initiative put in place by the UN to recognise that there are health implications when a new water source is brought to a community where there has never been one before. Issues of health and hygiene need to be addressed and Water Drops is now fully on-board with this concept.
So, alongside the shallow dam we have also included the following:
- Â Â A two-door structure which will have a pit latrine on one side and a small bathroom on the other side. When people accompany their livestock to a watering hole they will also come with their clothes for washing and set them out for drying before returning back to their homesteads. As they will be around the dam site for a number of hours they need the option of a suitable toilet. These measures will ensure a clean and safe environment across the whole water storage site – the borehole and the dam – which will have a significant impact on the health of the whole community.
- Â Â A workshop for the whole community will be organised at a time and date that suits best, and this will cover topics such as good practice in terms of water use, personal cleanliness and health and well-being improvements. A small group of elected community members will be trained in the maintenance and upkeep of the dam, the borehole and the storage tank.
Project Costs:
| Description | Estimated Cost £ | Expenditure £ | Balance £ |
| The following work was carried out: 1. Excavation of shallow dam 2. Fencing the dam area 3. A 2 door pit latrine 4. WaSH training workshop | 11,300.00 | 12,000.00 | -700.00 |
The balance was covered by existing funds from our ‘area of greatest need’ account.
Conclusion:
This project has been implemented in conjunction with the local communities involved and has not been sub-contracted to another organisation that is based in Kenya. We have a dedicated team that we work alongside on all our projects and all the work is carried out to the highest standards possible.
In conclusion, the community around Imaroro have found themselves caught between modernisation – in terms of moving towards a settled lifestyle – and the fact that the basic resource of a water supply has not been put in place in order to assist this new way of living.
This project proposal goes towards helping with this situation by providing an appropriate solution for the local population as well as for their livestock.
