Problem
Around 1,500 people call the village of Risa home. For a long time, the closest water source was at the Iremito gate of the Amboseli National Park, approximately five kilometers to the south. Unfortunately this source did not provide reliably year round, so women had no choice but to travel even farther to water sources like swamps and ponds. It was not uncommon for women to be gone eight or nine hours, every day. A few years ago, a well was dug but it failed to provide an adequate supply to all the villagers.
Risa is a chronically dry area, with only poor supply of water from the pipeline managed by Kenya Wildlife Service. Risa Primary School didn’t have water, and children carried drinking water from home. There was no water to prepare lunch for students or for teachers who live at the school. Boreholes in the area are extremely low yielding and far from the school.
Solution
WILK came to Risa expecting the solution to be simple: drill the well deeper, and get a better pump. However, testing revealed that drilling deeper could be dangerous, so WILK and the villagers had to get creative. After a few community meetings, the plans were set; a rainwater harvesting system would be installed to the village’s primary school. Gutters would collect the rains off the roof, and the water would collect in storage tanks right by the school.
Status:
Complete & Functioning
Impact
Students and teachers now have reliable drinking water and water to prepare from the rainwater collected in the tanks, so can focus on their school work. The water lasts several months. During the long dry season, school management contacts Kenya Wildlife Service and pays them to come with a water tanker and fill the tanks.
Photos from Risa
