August Report

Juma had a meeting today at Meru with our Member of Parliament (MP) and the patron to our Constituency Development Fund regarding the Lokuniyani water project. The purpose of the meeting was to brief the MP on our plans following the damaged well and seek his consent and support for a community water point near the borehole. The MP had no objection for us to go ahead with the project though he can't promise any financial support. He proposed we seek audience with the water engineer to find out the water yield and if a second connection is possible. He also asked that we organize a meeting with the Lokuniyani water users committee as the CDF has handed over the project to the community and they are current holders of the water project. The purpose of the meeting will be to brief the community on our proposal, inform them about the community benefit and get community consent. We are currently setting up a meeting with the community.

Stephanie Ng's Visit- May 2012

We had some difficulty arriving at this place. For reasons explained below, Lucas and Paul do not make regular visits to this well. Since the last time they visited Lokuniyani Well, the rain and flood has changed the landscape of the area making it hard to locate the correct path to the well site. Fortunately, we ran into an elder from the community who was very gracious to lead us to where the well is located.

Lokuniyani Well (D1W3) was one of the first wells drilled by The Samburu Project in 2006. For several years the well was being used by the community and there was no problems with it. However a few years ago, the well was filled completely with gravel and rocks to the point that the well is unsalvageable. It is impossible for Lucas and Paul to remove the rods or recovery any of the parts. Though we have not been able to get a written confession, the CDF and County Counsel have verbally insinuated that they were responsible for the vandalism of this well.

The CDF and County Counsel had received funding from the government to drill a borehole in this community. When they brought in their hydrogeolist, he identified the area that we had already drilled our well as the place with the most water available. There is a Kenyan law that prohibits the drilling of two wells/boreholes within a certain meters of each other. For reasons that we still have not been able to gather, it appears that they hired people to tamper with our well so that they could go back to the higher powers and say that they were justified in drilling a borehole right next to our well because our well was permanently broken and was not working for several years which is untrue.

I visited the area to find our well just as Lucas had described. I had not expected the borehole funded by the CDF and County Counsel to be so close to our well – it was just a few steps or meters from our well.

The water from this borehole is being pumped up to Lokuniyani market near the Lokuniyani primary school.

Since it is impossible to recover the well, Lucas has come up with the following solution as to how to provide water to the people that was originally benefitting from our well. What currently happens with the borehole and tank in the marketplace is that every Tuesday the borehole is set to pipe water to that tank; in other words, water from the borehole is only being pumped one day out of the entire week. Lucas is proposing that a second tank be placed about 15-20 kilometers from the gated borehole/well area and to have the borehole pump water to fill this tank every Monday. In this way it should not interfere with the current schedule. In order to channel water from the current pipeline to this second tank, Lucas believes that it should be fairly easy to install a T-joint where two pipes join together and then have a few meters of piping to this tank. At this T-joint there should be some type of regulating device that controls the flow of water depending on whether it is intended to go to the community tank or marketplace tank.

Lucas has been working tirelessly since this problem arose to hold the local government accountable. They have admitted some type of responsibility but refuse to put something in writing knowing full well that it would be enough for us to take legal actions against them. Unfortunately the district commissioner (DC) for Samburu East that Lucas has been liaising with has been transferred from this district and there is a new district commissioner. Fortunately, Lucas had met this new DC and has already left a very positive first impression on him. He is hopeful that this new DC will work to remedy this problem. It is important to keep in mind that this issue will most likely not be given priority by the local offices until after the elections in March 2013. Regardless, Lucas is determined to continue pushing forth and pursuing the people in the CDF and City Counsel.

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Kristen Kosinski's Visit - February 2011

On her visit Kristen met with a variety of community members, including elders, children and the chairwoman of the community's women's group. Below is the information she gathered on this visit:
-Borehole drilled by County Council right next to our pump (2-3 meters).
-They sabotaged our well by filling it with gravel. We were unable to save the pump.
-Lucas is investigating and setting up a meeting with the head of the County Council.

Sarah Ball's and Ashley Cook's Visit - June 2010

Notes from the Lokuniyani Well:
-The community would like to keep spare parts available for when the well breaks.
-The well needs a permanent fence to keep wild animals out. In addition, the community would like a trough for their livestock.