Stephanie Ng's Visit- May 2012
On my second day out in the field, we visited the very first well that The Samburu Project ever drilled, Lendadapoi Well (D1W1). There we ran into Lmerongo Lenamarker who is a dear friend of Lucas’s. I could tell how comfortable the two of them were by the tone of their voices and the frequent laughter. When I asked who uses the well most, Lmerongo answered lightheartedly though very seriously, “The women because the well belongs to them.” I was astounded at how this community really took ownership of their well and made improvements to best suit their needs. Not only is there a very formidable bush fence around the well made out of large sticks and branches to keep the livestock from walking straight up to the well, but the community has hand constructed a pipe to put over the well opening that channels the water from the well to a watering trough a few meters away. Lmerongo said that more than 2,000 goats, 500 calves and 200 camels drink from this trough every day.
For the Lendadapoi community, before this well, women had to walk behind a distant mountain to get water which would take 6 hours each day. Now, it takes 3-5 minutes to come to the well from their homes which allows women to get water early in the morning, bring it back to the livestock and family and spend the rest of the day taking care of the family or going to town to sell milk and livestock. The walk to Wamba town is 2 hours each way so by not having to walk long distances to find water, women finally have time to engage in money-making activities in town. This well has also drastically changed their health- before everyone would get diarrhea from drinking dirty water but now the clean water from the well has reduced all water-borne diseases.
Futhermore, before this well, men and women would have to walk their animals very far distances to find green pastures and less than half of the baby goats/camels/calves would survive the drought. Now that they have this well, not only is the water very clean which means they spend less money deworming their livestock, but each household makes a lot more money because all of the baby animals survive! For the Samburu people, their livestock is their livelihood; therefore, water brings life to their animal which in turn brings life (not just survival, but the ability to adequately meet your family’s needs) to the Samburu people. When we asked what are some of the major issues faced by the community, Lmerongo smiled and said “We don’t have any problems- the only problem was water and now we don’t have any problem. Well, the only problem is lack of green pastures but I doubt you have control over that.”
Although Lmerongo did not know the exact number of children from his community that went to primary school (the primary school is made up of children from several different communities), he said that there was 47 children in nursery, 12 children in high school, 1 in university. The ratio of boy students to girl students is about 50/50. Lmerongo said that most girls now are able to go to school.
In terms of the well condition, there has been no issue in the last few years. Instead, this community takes very good care and ownership of this it thereby showing how much they cherish and respect well.