Stephanie Ng's Visit- May 2012
This well was originally drilled during our third well drill in 2008. However, due to a conflict between the community and one of the well driller’s men, the drilling and equipping of the well was never completed. Having gone with another well driller for our fourth well driller, we decided to return to the first well driller this past August on the grounds that his company would come back to this community and re-drill this well.
When I arrived at the well with Juma and Paul, a couple of women and their children were present and were pumping water into their jerry cans. The new well is located a few meters away from the original well which only has the metal casing remaining. When I inquired about the history of the first well and why it was not completed, the younger woman said that the well was drilled and completed and was pumping water for about a week until it stopped working. At this point, the children filled the casing with gravel. This account did not match up with what actually happened so when a man joined us at the well, I had Juma ask him for his take on the two wells. He told us that he was a part of this community at the time of the first well drill. Regarding the women and their conflicting account, Juma suspects they were either not present during our third well drilling or were not informed of the actual story for whatever reason.
The well was drilled in September and during the drilling there was an issue with the water quality - the pump was mixing the water and the soil together causing the water that came out to be impure. Thankfully the well drillers noticed the problem and fixed the issue. Since then, women and children from about 200 households take water from this water source. They use this clean water for drinking, both for human and livestock.
When asked how this well has changed their lives, the women replied that the water they now get from this well is clean which has drastically reduced the number of waterborne diseases in the community. Furthermore, they no longer have to walk to the riverbed where they would dig shallow hand dug holes and painstakingly scoop small cups of dirty water into their jerry cans. Now that they have a safe, clean water source nearby, more children are able to go school with about 250 students in primary school.