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From March-August 2021 the following activities were implemented by the WASH project in different locations.
a) Community Lead Total Sanitation at Oloosokon and Olemoncho villages
In March and May 2021, the Maa Trust conducted CLTS training in Oloosokon and Olemoncho. During the triggering session, 99 community members were educated on the importance of proper sanitation and hygiene.
CLTS committees were formed in each village to handle community sensitization and engagement, resulting in community control and the process's long-term viability. During the process's oversight, the committee will also conduct weekly and monthly follow-ups, as well as data collection. In Oloosokon, successful follow-up sessions increased the number of toilets from 15 to 27, indicating significant progress toward making the village an Open Defecation Free (ODF) Zone.
TMT is collaborating with the Narok Ministry of Health's public health department to ensure that the communities in the Maasai Mara villages are fully sensitized to proper sanitation and hygiene, as well as attaining Open Defecation Free (ODF) status.
b) Nkirgir and Ngila community meetings for community water projects
Community meetings were held in Nkirgir and Ngila villages in May and August to begin community engagement in rainwater harvesting projects that will be built in the two villages. Every village chose a water management committee of 15 people to oversee daily project management. This committee will be registered with the department of social services. The villages were asked with acquiring land titles for the parcels of land where the infrastructure will be built. The Nkirgir project is being funded by Aqua Nirvana and the Ngila Project by Rotary / Project Charlie.
In June, a baseline survey was conducted in Nkirgir and Ngila villages to determine the two communities' water needs. The study included 277 Nkirgir homes and 72 Ngila homes, within a radius of 4 kilometres from the infrastructure location.
The survey covered topics such as the state of the communal water supplies in the two villages, water safety and treatment, cleanliness, and the prevalence of disease in the community as a result of drinking polluted water.
The finding showed that 70.4% and 80.6% of the households surveyed in Nkirgir and Ngila villages, respectively, ended up drinking and cooked with water from unprotected sources. Also, it was noted that the majority of the households can harvest rainwater using the roof, however, the size of the tanks cannot sustain the consumption long enough. As a result, these communities rely on rivers and private dams for cooking and drinking water, putting them at risk of drinking contaminated water.
98.6 % of the households interviewed reported they clean water collection vessels while 72.5 % and 87.3% of Ngirgir and Ngila village families, respectively, reported cleaning the containers used to collect water with water and elephant poop. Additionally, 66.4 % of Nkirgir and 73.6 % of Ngila households reported using water treatment for drinking water. According to statistics, the most common methods used by the community to treat drinking water is adding chlorine to water and boiling.
Because of a lack of access to clean and safe drinking water, 52 % and 58 % of Nkirgir and Ngila respondents, respectively, indicated that the community's sickness was caused by poor sanitation. The most common illnesses in the two communities are typhoid, diarrhea, and stomach discomfort. Seeking treatment for chronic illnesses can be extremely costly, and hospitals can be inaccessible at certain times of the year, raising the cost of medication.
According to the report, less than 11.2 % of families have access to toilets at the household level. Water contamination in open sources is also caused by a lack of toilets, as homes without toilets throw used sanitary pads into bushes, which are then swept into rivers, contaminating water and contributing to water-borne illnesses.
For the Ngila project, we are very sensitive of its visibility and impact, being located between Olare Motorogi and Naboisho Conservancies. Many families were relocated to this area when Naboisho was formed and water is a major challenge in the community. Instead of one large central project, we are looking at installing three smaller projects distributed along the linear community and unlike other projects. The instrastructure will not be installed on host parcels, rather existing community plots with land titles, but because of the sensitive nature of this area, the tanks will be made of metal and so all of the infrastructure will be movable. We will also ensure that Naboisho Conservancy manager’s request for the tanks to be painted for camouflage is undertaken.
c) Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) at Orboma-Sekenani
TMT attended and donated sanitary pads at a pad drive in Sekenani, Orboma village in May. Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) training was conducted to educate the girls on the best ways to dispose of used sanitary pads, which will help them since a majority of the girls do not have access to toilets at home, therefore, reducing environmental and water pollution.
d) Aqua Clara exchange visit
In August, the TMT water team visited an organization called Aqua Clara who are a fellow Transform International (our Canada partner) transformation centre. The main purpose of the visit was to see the various water filtration and technology projects that Aqua Clara has undertaken, ranging from small household filters to large community-sized filters. Also, the team was able to visit some of the households as well as one primary school where the filters had been installed. The team were very impressed and intend to install these water filtration systems at its headquarters and in the community in collaboration with Aqua Clara.