Safewater is the most recent initiative of the Tweed Kenya Mentoring Program and is an element dedicated to the installation and operation of facilities in Kenya that will save lives by delivering access to safe drinking water.

One of the most important targets of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to halve, by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Safewater helps to attain this fundamental humanitarian goal. Increasing access to safe water has an immediate benefit to community health by reducing exposure to diseases such as typhoid, cholera and polio and dysentry. Safewater immediately decreases infant mortality and improves community productivity, for example by reducing household expenditure on medicines and allowing children a better chance of attending school.

The foundation of the Safewater Project is a voluntary deduction by a number of Tweed Shire Staff of a small component of their wage each week. This is pooled and supplemented with donations by local businesses and community groups to make an annual project budget.

The objective of the Tweed Kenya Mentoring Programs (TKMP) Safewater 3 project was to provide a hygienic drinking water supply to a rural community in Western Kenya.

Following Safewater 1 & 2 undertaken in 2007 and 2008 in the Siaya district of the Nianza province of Kenya, a Safewater 3 project was planned and delivered between mid 2009 and April 2010. Subsequent to community and government representatives’ consultation undertaken by Tweed Kenya Mentoring Project (TKMP) Officers in Kenya, the community of Ochilo was determined a suitable location to undertake the project.

Our project aim was achieved by installing 4 SkyJuice™ filters in conjunction with a water pumping and storage facility at Ochilo primary school.

The objective of the Tweed Kenya Mentoring Programs (TKMP) Safewater 2 project was to provide a hygienic drinking water supply for a rural community in Western Kenya.

The project was achieved by installing 4 SkyJuice™ filters in conjunction with a water pumping and storage facility at Tinga Dam, near the village of Ohaya.

The project was managed by a TKMP volunteer and Tweed Shire Council staff member, Tom Alletson, who planned and designed the installation and travelled to Kenya in November 2008 to deliver and commission the equipment. The essential preliminary work to facilitate the project was undertaken by the TKMP’s Kenyan Coordinator, Olita Ogonjo, in the months preceding November.

The project report (see link above) is presented in two parts. First, a summary description of the project, and second, an edited account of Tom's time in Kenya in diary form. This second part of the report attempts to give a more colourful account of the people, places and events that shape the safewater delivery.

In 2007, a Safewater Installation was undertaken in Obambo Kadenge, a very isolated and extremely poor area of rural Kenya, some 6-8 hours west of Nairobi.

The objective of Safewater '07 was to install a SkyJuice water filtration system for a village of approximately 1000 residents who relied on a contaminated dam for their drinking water supplies. Due to severe poverty, villagers could not afford to boil or treat their water in any way, and so as well as walking long distances to collect it, they were affected by contaminants derived from cattle, agriculture and domestic runoff.

The safewater project site was identified by Olita Ongonjo, coordinator of the Tweed Kenya Mentoring Project. Olita travelled to Obambo and rallied villages to form a committee and begin planning for the installation of the SkyJuice Plant.

In March 2007, Marty Hancock, an environmental scientist from Tweed Shire Council volunteered his time to take the Skyjuice plant to Obambo to install and commission it. As well as raising significant funds for the project, Marty spent countless hours planning technical aspects of the installation, relying on very difficult communications with Olita, and solving numerous problems related to the isolation and poverty endured by the target community.

The configuration ultimately adopted for Obambo was four sky hydrant filters backed by a wind generator and a pump. The facility will be able to produce 40, 000 litres of pure drinking water each day.

The village has used Safewater project funds to construct a tank stand and other necessities for the facility. A village committee will be responsible for maintenance of the plant, and charge a small fee for water which will be used to fund ongoing maintenance. Immediate health improvements will be backed by an ongoing education program on hygiene and sanitation. The water source will also be protected by fencing the dam to exclude cattle, while at the same time providing a trough for them to be watered from. This will reduce erosion of the dam banks, eliminate manure input and improve water quality prior to filtration.

The project has been successful, and for the first time in their lives, residents of Obambo Kadenge are able to drink water that will not make them sick. Quote "…As well as delivering this incredibly worthwhile project, Marty has had the experience of a lifetime, seeing the harsh realities of life in one of the poorest parts of the world, but also experiencing the legendary tenacity, optimism and humour of the African people." says Marty.

The Tweed Shire Council staff and many Tweed Community members involved in Safewater ’07 are intending to repeat the exercise in 2008. With knowledge gained through the Obambo installation, and inspired by Olita's description of the next village desperate for assistance, there will be no shortage of motivation to continue with this life saving initiative.