Water is life. A scarce resource in Kenya. Clean water is the first stepping stone to transformation and development.
Louise Roche rsm
Management of Water & Songa Mbele Children’s Centre:
Songa Mbele is a project of the Sisters of Mercy – Kenyan Province – for children living with disabilities from the Mukuru Slums, Nairobi. Water for us is a great blessing. We get water regularly from the County of Nairobi for the functioning of the project. We pay for this water according to usage. The Centre requires a lot of water as we have 55 children with disabilities in our daycare facility at the moment. Another 25 children under three years of age come for therapy during the week.
Water is also a great risk. When it rains it pours. Outside our gate, there is a market with a large stinking water drain, clogged with rubbish of every kind. When the drain overflows, it makes its way into our compound and does a lot of damage from time to time. We work in the heart of the slum.
In 2020 – 2021 a new building was erected, sponsored by the Kenyan Foundation Fund (Ireland). An Irish couple were instrumental in acquiring the funds for us through the named fund. The building is just completed and occupied. The joy of the young people entering the building with all their disabilities was noted very much by the staff and all who were present at the time.
We availed of the opportunities at the time to control flooding of the compound. From the drain outside the gate we managed to divert the water by using a culvert inside the galvanized boundary wall of the Centre near the gate. Please God this will be a great help in the future.
On the other side is the Ngong River, also highly polluted. Three storey shanty houses are erected on its banks overlooking the compound. No regard for riparian land!!
Our effort to prevent flooding here was to put gabions inside our masonary wall for drainage. The wall was sponsored by Pro-Victimis (Geneva, Switzerland) in 2019/2020 to protect our boundary.
One great benefit of COVID-19 was that the people received free water from the Government and still do twice a week. Our children enjoy the food and drink at the Centre twice a day as water and food are scarce in their homes.
Water Harvesting :
There are two rainy seasons, one long , one short. In our new building we have set up a rainwater harvesting system. This will be invaluable when water is scarce. No contamination reaches it and it is a reliable source of clean water. It is cost effective and eco-friendly.
Rain Water Harvesting System
In Kenya, every day we thank God we have access to water as many people have to travel kilometres on foot to fetch the precious commodity Water.
Louise Roche rsm
Kenyan Province
