EDUCATION RESOURCES
Action for clean water
Case study
Brenda – Chebelion Primary School
Every day begins in exactly the same way for Brenda Chepkemoi. The
14-year-old wakes up at 6am, leaves her home with plastic containers inhand, and heads to the river to fetch water.
It’s a two-hour round trip. She gets home just in time to start school.
“We take water from the river, but it’s far away,” says Brenda. “It’s not
good water, people wash in the river, it’s dirty.”
Needless to say, she does not enjoy the trek to the river. Once a day
would be enough, but she has to go again after school.
Brenda lives in a small village called Chebelion. It’s about an hour’s drive
from Bomet, in the south-west of Kenya. The landscape is not what you
might expect for an area that is lacking in clean water. The fields are
green and there are a number of rivers that flow through the county. But
the rivers are polluted and the lack of toilets means people defecate in
the bush.
Brenda, dressed in her
school uniform.
“In our homes, some have toilets and others don’t,” explains Brenda. “After going to the forest [to
defecate], when the rains come, they sweep all the dirt into the river and that’s the water we are
bringing to our homes to use.”
Using dirty water for cooking, cleaning and drinking inevitably leads to waterborne diseases.
“Whenever I drink the water from the river I get stomach ache for three days,” continues Brenda. “I
have to miss school when I get sick. I fall behind on my work, it makes me sad.”
Brenda is by no means alone. She attends Chebelion primary school along with about 500 other
students aged between four and 14 years.
The school has a small water tank, but it’s not enough for the pupils. They too rely on getting water
from the river – eight kilometres away.
The school’s head teacher, Anne Kikwai, says: “When they use that river water, the children get
diseases, like typhoid and dysentery. When they get sick, they don’t come to school they go to
hospital to get treated. And the hospital is also very far from Chebelion community.”
Women from Brenda’s community collect water from the
river.
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Pupils have to rely on getting water from the river –
eight kilometres away.
© British Red Cross 2014. All images © British Red Cross 2014 unless otherwise stated.
This resource and other free educational materials are available at www.redcross.org.uk/education
The British Red Cross Society is a charity registered in England and Wales (220949) and Scotland (SCO37738).
EDUCATION RESOURCES
Action for clean water
Case study
Samson – Kosia Primary School
The rain is tumbling heavily on the corrugated iron roof of Kosia primary
school. The noise is such that it’s impossible to hold a conversation, let
alone teach a class.
The rains have arrived in Kosia – a small community not too far from
Kenya’s world renowned Masai Mara wildlife reserve. The landscape is
lush and green. There appears to be an abundance of water, but all is
not as it seems.
This region of Bomet County is a poor area, one that is prone to both
drought and flooding. It’s what’s known as a peri-urban area; it’s neither
urban, nor rural, but somewhere in between. The rapid growth and
informal status of these areas means there aren’t enough water and
sanitation services.
Many people have no toilet facilities and rely on water collected from
nearby rivers – which is both dirty and polluted.
Samson outside his school.
“When I drink the water, I usually become sick and that makes me not to come to school since I
have to go to the local clinic,” says Samson Onyiego.
The 15-year-old, whose favourite subject is Kiswahili, has to undertake a three-hour round trip to
fetch water from the River Mara.
“The water we use from the river is not clean and gives us diseases such as diarrhoea and
cholera,” he continues. “My parents usually get sick when they drink water from the river. When
they fall sick I’m the one who takes care of them.”
His story is not unique, it is the norm. Joseah Cheruiyot,
head teacher at the school, says:
“The water from the river is not safe for human consumption.
We’ve had several cases recently of waterborne diseases
like typhoid. This causes frequent absenteeism and at times
it also causes school dropouts. Some of the children drop out
of school because of frequent sickness as a result of dirty
water. At times pupils are absent because they stay at home
to take care of their sick parents.”
The rain stops as we leave the school. The school grounds
are covered in puddles and the dirt roads have turned to
mud.
Despite the apparent abundance of water, we get a stark
reminder of the lack of clean water.
We pass a couple of kids in the road carrying plastic bottles
filled with water collected from the river – it’s murky, brown,
translucent.
You wouldn’t give this water to an animal, let alone a small
child.
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From top: Young people at the school
shelter from the rain. Women and girls from
the local community carry water back from
the river.
© British Red Cross 2014. All images © British Red Cross 2014 unless otherwise stated.
This resource and other free educational materials are available at www.redcross.org.uk/education
The British Red Cross Society is a charity registered in England and Wales (220949) and Scotland (SCO37738).