The Southwest Kenya Village Drill

GWI partners with the Rift Valley Resource Centre to implement the Southwest Kenya Village Drill Project in Nandi County, Kenya.

The need for water in Nandi County is dire: government stats indicated that less than 30% of the population has ready access to clean water.

 In looking at options for contributing in Kenya, our Team heard about the hand-operated Village Drill.

This drill was designed by engineers at Brigham Young University, to install drilled wells in remote and challenging areas.

We saw that the Village Drill was a good fit for installing low-cost wells in some parts of Nandi County. And, fortunately, one of the manufacturing sites is in Mombasa, Kenya.

The funds to purchase the drill were solicited from generous companies and individuals known to our Team. The goal is to install wells at locations that can provide ongoing maintenance of the well and hand pump, such as schools, medical centres, churches and mosques.

Fund-raising for individual wells is done by schools or other groups in Canada. And we try to hook up the donors with the recipients via Skype, so they can see first hand how the wells impact the local community.
The Southwest Kenya Village Drill project is operated as a small business that generates income for up to 6 Kenyan workers.

Our Team helped to drill the first well and a local crew was trained, with the aid of a trainer from Mombasa (thanks, Nicholas).

So far 8 wells have been drilled.  The goal is to find more locations with appropriate hydrogeology and recipients, and to keep drilling!