Latest News: Nyandarua North Commissioning

Joyce Njgua, KRA Board Member, commissions the farm pond component, Nyandarua North distric, Kenya. Source: GHARP/KRA

Nyandarua North district was one of the 2nd year project sites for the EU/Skillshare project and on 19^th February 2011 it was officially commissioned and handed over to the community. The project has been very successful and the community members are now motivated to maintain the water structures and ensure long-term sustainability. We are very grateful to the partners who provided match funding for this site: Constituency Development Fund, Safaricom Foundation, and Christadelphian Meal-a-Day Fund.

Project Components

• 31 farm ponds of 50m³ in size, lined with ultra-violet resistant plastic  and roofed with iron sheets.
• 31 simple manual hand pumps for lifting the water from the farm ponds.
• 31 low-head drip irrigation systems (50-litre jerrican kits) for vegetable production.
• 1 communal tree/vegetable seedling nursery at the school and 300 fruit tree seedlings.
• Community capacity building on various project aspects with an exchange visit to Molo and Nakuru districts.
• Ndururi Primary School received a comprehensive package of: a roof catchment system and 50m³ rainwater masonry storage tank, a farm pond and micro-irrigation system, and gender-separate ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines.

Commissioning Event

The KRA and the Safaricom teams arrived at Ndururi Primary School – the venue for the commissioning – in the afternoon and were greeted by representatives of the Mutitu Wendani Self-help Group (the local community-based organisation) and parents of Ndururi Primary School and local leaders. The guests were warmly welcomed by the entire community with songs and dancing as they approached the venue. The local leaders welcomed the guests, and after a brief introduction, the guests were shown different project components at the school for official cutting of the tape and commissioning.

Speeches and Impacts

A number of speeches were made by the development partners, and they all agreed that the project was a clear success and thanked the community for their commitment and enthusiasm.  Specific hoped-for impacts include:

• Increased and improved access to a sustainable water supply for farmers and the school.
• Nutritional benefits from the vegetables grown from farm ponds and drip irrigation systems.
• Opportunities to scale-up farming activities and enter the marketplace (e.g. greenhouse construction in order to grow tomatoes year-round).
• Alternative livelihood options which require water for success (e.g. horticultural production).
• Reduced incidences of water-borne diseases due to improved sanitation (VIP latrines) and hygiene education.
• Development opportunities (building new classrooms) using money saved from buying water.
• Enhanced environmental conservation and watershed management – sources of tree seedlings and tree planting campaign.
• Improved school attendance and mean scores due to less time spent collecting water.

However the Mutito Wendani Self-help Group do not want to stop there. They have plans to upgrade their lives and livelihoods further by expanding the group and sourcing for more funds to build a new school classroom and hand-washing facilities, as well as increasing their tree seedling and vegetable planting.