An NGO Providing Clean Drinking Water

Waterlines International began its activities in Bomet around sixteen years ago with the single main objective of providing clean and safe water to the residents. The presence of this NGO in the county is attributed to Linda Golden, a former volunteer Peace Corp who taught at Longisa High School in the late 1990s. She mobilized fellow Peace Corps volunteers in the area at the time, and started teaching residents on rain harvesting and spring protection. They initially worked with women’s self-help groups but later started providing rainwater collection tanks for churches, health clinics, and schools.

According to one of the NGO’s facilitators, David Langat, they currently focus on projects that benefit a bigger population unlike before when individual owners benefitted. He said that they fund water projects especially for schools and dispensaries as well as springs that are communal.

The beneficiaries normally get water tanks constructed for them with 75% funding from Waterlines International while the remaining 25% of the total is met by the group or institution that is going to use the water.
“In case an institution needs a water tank, all they do is simply apply through our offices at Silibwet. We assess if they have the right components for our project then we recommend accordingly,” Langat said.

He said that the possible beneficiaries of their funding are those with existing corrugated roofed buildings preferably with roof gutters. They should also be ready to shoulder a quarter of the cost of the tank. Apart from these requirements is the proof that the water tank to be constructed will benefit a good number of people at once.

The most common tanks that have been constructed through Waterlines support are the Ferro cement tanks that are said to be the best. However, stone and concrete tanks can still be facilitated but not those made from bricks because bricks lack uniformity in quality.

“A single poor quality brick can easily render the entire project useless due to leaking,” Langat said.

So far the NGO has supported the construction of more than 200 tanks in Bomet distr