Water Well for village of Ngu-nyumu, Sub-location of Kyaani in the Mua Hills, near Lukenya, Central section, District of Machakos,

Eastern Province Kenya, East Africa

Children are the future of this world. Yet, in Kenya, 12% of the children die before the age of 5, and 80% of those deaths are caused by water related diseases. For those of us you can turn on a water faucet and not worry about the quality of water coming out, we can bathe in clean water, we can drink the water in our country, but in East Africa, the majority of water is so filled with water related diseases and parasites. To know this is, to wonder why we can't do something to help prevent, they can learn, they can grow up to be an adult, have a family, and rise their own children. But without clean water they have very little chance of realizing a healthy or continuing.

Remember the Ecoli outbreak in the US due to contaminated water, think of this as happening on a daily basis. But the people of Kenya have lived with this most of their lives. One child dies every 15 seconds from water related diseases. One sixth of the world doesn't have access to clean water, 1.1 billion people. And those of us who have it might not be aware of the needs of clean drinking in many of the countries around the world. This village we are trying to provide with a water well has close to 1,200 people, think about it, 500 women that carry water each day from miles away, on foot in order to have clean drinking water.

This project is costly, as the clean drinking water is at a depth of 550 feet. To drill to this it takes a drilling rig equipped to reach this depth, also to get it over there over roads that are non existent is a feat in its self. The roads are not more than trails in some spots. The water survey has been done and the area most likely to have the water identified. The land in this particle has been donated by a local farmer, with the feeling it will benefit all in the village.

This is a farming community, there are no other wells within this area, so people carry water anywhere from three to five miles each day to supply their needs for water to drink and to cook, and bathe. If the people bathe in the contaminated water, they are subject to the parasites that are in the contaminated water. Water contact diseases are those which people get from having skin contact with water containing larval worms. There are both environmental and chemical means of controlling the spread of water borne diseases. Some that are caused by contaminated water are river blindness; mosquito transmitting yellow fever and malaria, diarrhea, just to name a very few.

The cost to drill and equip this well is in the neighborhood of $75,000 US dollars, this included the permits, the drilling rig transport to and from the location, the piping, the generator (diesel) to run the pump, there is no electricity with in miles of this location. The price also included a building to house the pump and generator. The local non-profit overseeing this project is Woni Development Initiatives Program which is a community based organization within the laws of Kenya.

Won't you consider a donation to this worthwhile cause of providing clean drinking water to those in need? Think about how easy it is for us to turn on a tap and let it run. Would you carry water from three to five miles from home, think about it. This village is between 1000 to 1200 people, plus their animal.