Stephanie Ng's Visit- May 2012
We originally visited the well on Wednesday, May 16 late in the afternoon. We arrived at the well to find a man sitting nearby at the edge of the dry riverbed but he was not part of this community. Thankfully, Paul, the person in charge of well maintenance, was accompanying us to our well visits and reported that there was a big flood recently that swept through this area and actually covered the entire well with several feet of sand. The community had to scoop out all of the sand from this well (you can still see some of the sand on the slab) in order to use it again. I asked Paul whether the sand contaminated the water and he said that after pumping the water for a while, the water began coming out clean and there was no contamination. A Samburu mama and her child came by the well and though she wasn’t in any spirits to answer our questions she did confirm that there has been no problem with the well.
Having forgotten to take coordinates during that visit, we made a second trip to the well on Monday May 21 which turned out to be a great decision! Unlike the first time, there were a couple of women and several children taking water from the well when we stopped by this second time. The women confirmed what Paul had reported a few days prior – there was a very powerful flood that came through this area and actually uprooted and destroyed a very big tree right next to the well. They also confirmed that the well was not permanently contaminated and it is working perfectly well now; I saw with my own eyes that the water being pumped from this well was indeed clean.
Lucas spent a long time talking to the women and advising them on how to protect the well from future flooding. He instructed the community to dig deep trenches so that the rain water can be funneled and diverted away from the well; the women agreed to pass along this idea to the elders but noted that the flood is now coming from many different directions and that due to the ever-changing course of the river, the well is now basically in the middle of the river’s path. To date, this well has been affected one way or another by three floods. He suspects that if no permanent barrier or solution is established that this well will in a few years’ time no longer be functioning. We are currently looking into different long term solution to prevent further destruction to this well.
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