Project Details

The Mukuu community approached Just a Drop and The Tusk Trust for funding to allow it to manage its spring properly. The community had seen the neighbouring Rugusu community implement a similar scheme that now provides clean, safe water for families and livestock.
Both communities are closely involved with the highly successful Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Northern Kenya, which runs a number of self-sustaining projects to help the people on its boundaries improve their standard of living. These include the international award-winning Maasai community-run lodge, Il Ngwesi and the wilderness Sarara Camp in the Matthews Mountain Range, which is run by the Samburu Namunyak community.

Following the success of these community-owned lodges and their influence on Lewa's other neighbours, the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy has now established an ambitious community development project called the Northern Rangelands Trust. Covering ten communities and over 300,000 acres in northern Kenya, the Trust will focus on water, pasture and rangeland management as well as livestock production and capacity enhancement.

As part of the ongoing development of this arid region, the Mukuu community has come together with the help of Lewa and put forward a detailed proposal for the water project. It has to be emphasised that all the projects surrounding Lewa are community-driven. A seed will have been sown but it is up to members of the community to organise themselves and take the project forward.

A professional water engineer, Michael Thomas of Rural Focus Ltd in Nanyuki, has carried out a full survey and feasibility study on the spring, but the project itself will be community-owned and community-run, with no outside influence or district manager taking control.

The community has already established a spring management committee, which has made a contribution of £2,230 - 10% of the total funding required. The committee will be controlled by the existing community infrastructure which, as the Rugusu community has proved, works well for both people and cattle. It is envisaged that there will be no conflicts of use and once the project has been constructed it will be run and controlled by the community for whom it was intended. The committee will nominate a spring manager, who will be a volunteer member of the community, to ensure that the monthly maintenance programme is carried out. A five year maintenance fee has been built into the budget for any unforeseen eventualities.

We would like to thank Kenya Airways for their support in flying Mike Reynolds, Just a Drop Project Advisor, to Kenya to assess and oversee this project.