Water is Life… Help us capture rainwater at Naivasha Highway Primary School!

Thanks to our lovely donors, we've got gutters installed on the school rooftop! We would absolutely be thrilled to receive donations toward 2 rain barrels! We're so close....$935 USD left to raise. Here's our story:

Elizabeth Wanjiru (Liz Shish), James Kagwe and I, Paige Tantillo, are Permaculture designers and educators. We have been working as a team since late 2018 to establish a permaculture garden program at Naivasha Highway Primary School in Naivasha, Kenya. James, Elizabeth, and the team are providing weekly garden lessons to over 50 students through their Leafy Lit Permagarden program. This program commenced in January 2019 and has been enthusiastically adopted since the onset. Through past fundraising efforts, the school was able to build protective fenced in areas and created:

• Two double dug garden beds (226 feet in total) with a combination of fruit trees and vegetables
• Two greywater areas:
  
  • one with banana trees and veggies
  • another that will be a food forest (the kids are currently designing)
• A mandala garden with lovely flowers

The staff and students are very involved and absolutely thrilled to be planting their own food and learning about permaculture, water saving techniques and more!

Our next project phase is focusing on building more rainwater storage capacity. There are 700 students that will be using the rainwater for their daily needs. We currently have two rainwater tanks, but they are not sufficient enough to provide water for the school year round. The school has a HUGE roof that can be exploited for rainwater catchment. The foundation has been built to support two large tanks that have a potential to sequester an additional 20,000 liters of rainwater each rainfall. In addtion to the two tanks, the school will also need to construct the gutter system to properly fill the new tanks.

This project will help expand the primary water source for the school. The climate in this area is arid and is usually very hot and dry. The water quality in the Rift Valley is not great. Despite the fact that the source of water is from a fresh water lake (Lake Naivasha), fluoride is added which has negatively impacted the pupils health, in most cases causing weak bone structure and brown coated teeth (teeth discoloration).

Alas, there is a solution! If we can raise the funds to add guttering and rainwater tanks, we can provide the students with safe, available drinking water. The school has had the good fortune of receiving funds to lay the cement pad needed to hold the water tanks and have also fixed a broken pipe to manage the gardens greywater sources (handwashing stations). The next steps will be to raise the funds to get the rainwater tanks and guttering installed. The total cost of the rainwater project is estimated at $3,300 USD.This amount includes cost for 2,10,000 Liter rainwater tanks, plumbing and guttering supplies and labor to install guttering and tanks on the cement pad that has been built.

Please take a look through the photos to see our journey through the past year!

Any help toward this project would be so appreciated! Your kind donations will help a school of 700 bright students plus all the wonderful staff have a clean source of water from the sky! Many thanks from all of us for your care.

Paige, Liz and James