2Kings 2: 19-22 (NKJV):
19 Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the ground barren.”
20 And he said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. 21 Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’” 22 So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke
When NCCK first came to Chepkoibet village to sensitize community members on Sustainable Natural Resources Management, Chepkoibet spring looked lifeless and with limited ability to serve the community, mostly in dry periods.
The spring is based in Bomet in the Mid catchment, and serves around 700 households. In November 2004, the spring tricked with little water which would barely sill a 20 litres jelly can unless one would wait for almost an hour. As such, women and children used to leave their houses before 6 am when one would barely see the waling path, in order to catch the at least more cleaner water. From the spring flowed some little dirty water which the village cows waited around 20 metres downstream, to quench their thirst and aid in digesting the roughages eaten the previous night or though the day. The spring could barely satisfy the 100 heads of livestock it was serving. The environment around the spring was dilapidated with high levels of deforestation of indigenous trees that would otherwise have helped the spring keep flowing.
NCCK needed to prove that proper management of the spring would see it beam with cleaner water and increase in the quantity of water flowing. With funds from UKaid and Swedish Embassy in Nairobi administered through ACT!’s ‘Changieni RasliMAli Facility’, NCCK undertook to protect the spring. In partnership with a local Water Resource Users association and area village elders, NCCK mobilized the communities who set out to work on the spring. Materials were procured and others brought by community members as their contribution to the work. Indigenous trees were later planted around the area to ensure that a forest develops that will help in detoxicating the water while and the same time shading the area.
The community can now access access clean water for home consumption and livestock drinking. Talking to Kiprotich, a young school boy who came to fetch water, he had the following to say; “when the school teacher sends us to fetch water from the spring we don’t take so long to fetch water, and neither do we fight with fellow school mates on who will fetch water first, since there is no chance of anyone contaminating the water. Before it was protected, we used to come barefoot because it was so muddy but since protection was done we come to fetch water with shoes on and still get back to school clean. Personally I got more time to study now that I am a candidate waiting to sit my KCPE later in the year.”
A few women we found at the spring fetching water indeed acknowledged that protection of the Spring has really been of great importance to them and really thanked NCCK for assisting in their plight. “Nowadays I don’t have to wake up so early to queue for close to 5 hours just to fetch water for my family. It would take us close to twenty minutes to fetch one mtungi especially during the dry spell before protection was done, but nowadays it takes less than a minute.” Says Chebet, a young mother of four.
Mrs. Koech, a mother of six adds that she is no longer worried to send her children to fetch water. “We would always keep solving quarrels among our children to an extent the quarrels would escalate to the parents when unresolved amicably. This is because we would use leaves to collect the water and then transfer to the mtungi”
As for the men who happened to be present, theirs was also a positive report citing that their wives have more time to farm and collect firewood compared to when they would queue for so long. “Our wives are now available at home for more meaningful engagements. Their presence is felt even by the children and husbands who get to spend more time with them” said Ruto, one of the men we found at the site.
Paul Rono, chairman of Nyangores WRUA added that during the dry season, the Spring serves beneficiaries to a radius of 2 KM. Initially the spring would serve about 100 households and 3 schools but since the radius of service has increased, the spring now serves about 300 households and a total of 5 institutions. “I can also say that there is an aspect of improvement in livelihoods especially during the dry season, most some people will hire boda boda operators to fetch water for them and each trip to the spring will cost about Ksh.100 depending on distance.” Adds Rono,
