A new solar panel system installed by Practical Action in Turkana, with the old solar panel frame in the foreground
English
Equipping a borehole with a low-maintenance BluePump
Practical Action facilitates ‘triggering’ in Nawayotira, Turkana, as part of the Community-Led Total Sanitation approach
Practical Action has been working to equip boreholes and shallow wells in Kenya’s northeast county of Turkana, providing safe, sufficient water to communities who previously relied on contaminated or inadequate sources.
The SWIFT partner has successfully rehabilitated seven more shallow wells across Loima, Turkana South and Turkana East sub-counties. These are all now operational and each one is providing safe water to an average of 483 people.
In Tiya village, for example, the shallow well had been dysfunctional since 2013, as some of the pump parts were worn out, and the community had resorted to fetching water from traditional scoop holes along the ‘laggas’ (seasonal rivers). Under the SWIFT project, the worn out parts of the Afridev pump were replaced and the well is now yielding approximately 4,000 litres per day.
New pump and solar modules put an end to long queues
At Turkwel, a community of around 9,000 people, a shallow well with the potential to yield 12 cubic metres an hour had been yielding only 2 cubic metres an hour as a result of a low-capacity solar system. This meant that water was rationed to individual connections and only one community water point was active, resulting in long queues.
Practical Action upgraded the system with a new Lorentz pump and installed 32 solar modules, and the well is now delivering water eight hours a day at around 8 cubic metres an hour. Practical Action has also installed a 10 cubic metre storage tank at the community centre and has undertaken a 2km pipeline extension in order to reach more villages. A total of 4,270 people are now receiving safe and adequate water from community water points and individual connections.
BluePumps end communities’ reliance on scoop holes
Practical Action has equipped two more boreholes with low-maintenance BluePumps in the villages of Lokori and Lomopus, where communities previously relied on scoop holes from laggas and surface run-offs, which are highly prone to contamination. The pumps at Lokori and Lomopus are now yielding one and nine cubic metres an hour respectively. Both serve at least 600 people with safe and adequate water, and women and girls no longer spend several hours a day making the journey to distant water sources.
Plans to install solar pumps at five boreholes are on track, and a survey for the extension of pipelines to more villages has been carried out. Activities under the Community-Led Total Sanitation approach also continue, with four more villages ‘triggered’ in Turkana South: the process of stimulating a collective sense of disgust and shame among community members as they confront the facts about open defecation.
