Why do children have to choose between attending school and spending the day walking to a creek where the water is unsafe?
Is it acceptable that children trudge three miles a day to reach water that they know makes them sick, potentially sick enough to die? If children are the future, then solid investments in education and child health are non-negotiable. In the developing world, these two areas intersect at the point of water—clean water.
Architecture for Humanity (AFH) in partnership with the Nobelity Project (NP) recently completed the Mahiga Rain Court (MRC), in Mahiga, Kenya. Mahiga is a small sustenance based community near Nairobi. In Mahiga, children can only look forward to attending classes through grade 8.
NP was at work with the St. Joseph Mahiga Primary School, before spearheading the MRC. NP realized that impacting the community of Mahiga in a meaningful way was through education and water supply.
Together, AFH and NB constructed a self-sustaining rainwater court that services the local community by providing clean drinking water, a simple solution to the multifaceted issues facing Mahiga. Greg Elsner is a Design Fellow with AFH. Elsner lived in Kenya for 14 months while the MRC was underway. In an interview, Elsner told WaterWideWeb, “While I was in Kenya, the municipal water line ran for maybe two weeks in total”.
Before the MRC began, Mahiga suffered a four year drought. A long rainy season followed the drought, flooding areas where development work was taking place. High rates of absenteeism in school attendance were reported because children were trekking three miles per day to fetch unsafe drinking water from a small creek within miles of Mahiga. These children got sick from the unsafe water and missed additional days of school.
Livestock were dying, farmers couldn’t produce adequate crops for food supply and the crime rate was high. Immediate relief efforts for residents of the Mahiga community would be short-term. A long-term sustainable plan that controlled for global climate change and meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) needed to be implemented in Mahiga.
Drilling a bore hole for a water well would cost up to $60,000. The MRC was the most cost-effective and sustainable option for the community. So, architects and designers set out to assemble a full basketball court that collects rainwater during the rainy season. The MRC is complete with a solar powered UV purification system. The MRC is self-sustaining and operates on an alternative energy system.
“Already, 30,000 liters of water have been collected. The rain water was collected in just two days” confirmed Elsner to WaterWideWeb. AFH estimates that a total of 90,000 liters of rainwater could be collected by the MRC.
The water shortage in Mahiga affected the community in several capacities. Inadequate water supplies impeded social progress from the most fundamental levels of daily living. If the water issue was unaddressed in Mahiga, a generation of uneducated young adults who couldn’t farm their land because of a lack of water would have damned the community into economic and social stagnation.
If successful, the community of Mahiga can use water provided by the MRC for other needs beyond primary education. Rations of water can be used for livestock, agriculture, and hygiene. Most importantly, school children will no longer be forced to make the critical decision between fetching unsafe drinking water and attending school.
Over time, literacy rates in the area will increase. NP is currently working to develop a Mahiga Hope High School, in partnership with the Education District. The MRC reaches beyond the education sector and into the infrastructural development of the village as well.
With clean water, agricultural products will be reliable sources of food. Healthy livestock can make harvesting processes more efficient for farmers, leading to a source of income. With more reliable water systems, farmers can produce high quality agricultural products at fair prices. Markers of economic development will be evidenced by innovative social enterprises that generate income for villagers.
Perhaps the most important contribution that will be made to Mahiga as a result of the MRC and other initiatives like it is the shift from a mentality of limited choices and barely surviving. Once the immediate needs of the community are secured, help from the government, local businessmen and aid agencies can expand beyond disaster management. Only then will the educated children have a true future to look forward to, one that they are prepared to face and one that can embrace them.
The photo above was taken by Turk Pipkin Photography.
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