Clean Water for all Ayalagaya Villages

After its success in the village of Dareda Kati, in 2018, Karimu started to expand and apply its successful model to alleviate poverty to neighboring villages.

We focused first on clean water, without which no other projects can succeed. Before the execution of this project, neither the village of Gajal with its 529 households nor the village of Haysam with its 598 households had easy access to water. Additionally, while Dareda Kati had water, it was not clean and not enough for its growing population (1028 households).

Because parents have other work duties, Tanzanian children are responsible to satisfy their families’ water needs. Water used to be only available from muddy rivers or failing wells mostly located far from most houses. We met an eight-year-old girl who, every day, needed to fetch three buckets of water in the morning, four at noon, and two in the evening, each time walking some 8 km (5 miles). She therefore could not attend school, and she was the rule rather than the exception.

Karimu ended all of that by bringing clean water to Gajal and Haysam and replacing Dareda Kati’s water source to ensure the water is clean and enough.

We distributed water points with two faucets each throughout the three areas so children do not have to walk more than 500 meters to fetch clean water to their families.

The project encompassed:

• Water collection from clean streams on the wall of the Rift Valley escarpment (5.5 km from Gajal and 3 km from Haysam) and installation of a sedimentation system for cleaning and a very large collection tank

• Construction of storage tank in Gajal

• Construction of storage tank in Haysam

• Construction of 59 new water points and upgrade of 35 existing water points to distribute clean water throughout the three areas, covering every corner of Ayalagaya Ward to serve 2155 households or 10639 people

• Installation of 5.5 km of pipes to move water by leveraging gravity from the collection tank to the storage tank in Gajal

• Installation of 3.5 km of pipes to move water by leveraging gravity from the collection tank to the storage tank in Haysam

• Replacement of the water source, now moving water by leveraging gravity from the collection tank to the storage tank in Dareda Kati

• Water collection from clean streams on the wall of the Rift Valley escarpment (0.5 km from Gidimu C) to move water by leveraging gravity from the collection point to a storage tank in Gidimu C

• Construction of storage tank in Gidimu C

• Installation of 3.5 km pipes to distribute water by leveraging gravity from the Gajal storage tank to its water points

• Installation of 3 km pipes to distribute water by leveraging gravity from the Haysam storage tank to its water points

• Installation of 1 km pipes to distribute water by leveraging gravity from the Dareda Kati storage tank to new water points to ensure the maximum distance to a water point is 500 meters.

• Construction of a smaller tank to distribute clean water to remote areas of Dareda Kati

Benefits:

• Reduction of 30 percent or more in diarrheal diseases

• Higher school attendance and enrollment

• Improved performance on National Exam to qualify for secondary school: in 2018, the improved performance of all Ayalagaya schools caused a record number of primary school students to pass the National Exam - a number significantly larger than the capacity of Ayalagaya Secondary School. To alleviate this (good) problem, Karimu is expanding the secondary school.

Cost: The total cost of the project was $309,902.00. The community contributed $30,658.00 by:

• Laying all underground pipes

• Constructing the smaller tank to distribute clean water to remote areas of Dareda Kati

• Transporting material to every corner of the project, including carrying the material uphill to build the water collection on the wall of the Rift Valley escarpment, the sedimentation system, and the very large collection tank

Karimu covered $279,244.00.

Learn more about Karimu Health Program .