EWB-NY Matunda Health Centre Project | Kenya

The EWB-NY Matunda team has just returned home from our Monitoring and Evaluation trip to the Matunda Sub-District Hospital and we are pleased to report many successes!

There were two main goals for our trip:

1.       Assess the technical condition of the water system and finalize an operations and maintenance plan that can be referenced in the future by the management team overseeing the system.

2.       Conduct health and community assessments to understand the impact of the new water system and the operations of the hospital.

Unfortunately, when we arrived we learned that the electrical transformer powering the water pump had malfunctioned and needed to be replaced by the utility company, Kenya Power.  We made a good effort with the hospital management to reach out to Kenya Power and the Ministry of Water to have the repair work done as soon as possible, and by the time we were leaving Kenya they had made the necessary repairs and water was flowing again at the Hospital.

Aside from that small bump with Kenya Power, we were pleased to find that the water system was in great condition since it was built last year. We had a meeting with the hospital and future water committee to review the maintenance requirements (i.e., painting the steel tower, inspection, etc.) and it went over very well. All parties were aware of the importance maintenance holds to the sustainability of the system.

The hospital has used close to 300,000 liters of water in the past 12 months and we’re glad that it is there for patients, doctors, nurses, and all those who need it!

We learned very exciting information from our time at the Hospital through focus group interviews led by Iana Aranda and Erika Pozo. Patients have found it reassuring to see doctors and nurses wash their hands with clean water before treatment and the option to take their medication at the hospital during consultations greatly comforts them.

Our biggest take away from this trip was the overall increase in quality of care being offered at the Hospital due to the availability of clean potable water.  We are confident that the goal to bring clean potable water to the Matunda Sub-District Hospital which we set out to complete in 2007 has been achieved!

Oh, another great pieces of news to share! We learned that the volunteers who led the way in constructing the water system with EWB last year have organized themselves into a group known as “Volunteers Without Borders”. They said “working with EWB-NY truly inspired us to volunteer our time together and improve our community”. They have been busy with various projects such as planting & gardening for schools and homes. They plan to paint the water storage tank in beautiful colors as one of their next projects.

Team Matunda’s  next step will be to report our findings to EWB-USA in a 531 report due in early January.

Also in January,  we are planning to have a full project team meeting to review where the project has been, what it is now, and where we see it going. We are going to invite everyone who has been a part of this project since its inception and celebrate their hard work and dedication. We are very proud of the work we have completed and want to give thanks to all those have helped along the way.

Talk soon…

Best!

Sean Walsh
Project Lead

PHOTOS FROM THE TRIP

P.S. the first photo with Monica Louie and Charles Newman from our Usalama team was taken at a joint meeting we had in Nairobi!
Stay tuned for a new exciting expansion project that may come from the Usalama team…

Usalama and Matunda team meeting

EWB-NY and Volunteers Without Borders

Water management meeting

Iana and Erika leading the womens focus group interview

Iana and Erika leading the mens focus group interview

EWBNY in conjunction with The American Society of Civil Engineers and AECOM Invites you to:

Network, Drink and Give for the completion of the Matunda project

Suggested Donation $20
Please RSVP here

The Matunda project is alive and well as we move into the second half of 2011. We have been in touch with Catherine Juma (head nurse) and she has been so kind to keep us posted on the performance of the new water system, which we are pleased to report is in great condition! Catherine has said the shower in the maternity ward has been used very often, and access to water in the hospital has brought an increase to the number of patients being treated on a daily basis. She says, “having clean running water at our hospital has greatly increased our ability to treat community members and strengthen the performance of the hospital, thank you!”

As the new year has been progressing, our project has taken a new direction from engineering to public health monitoring and evaluation. Now that the system is up and running, we hope to see a decrease in water-born related illnesses. We have collected health data of patients over the past number of years and are now teaming with a group from the New York University School of Public Health to design and implement a long-term monitoring and evaluation program.

The collaboration between EWB-NYC and the NYU School of Public Health will bring our project the resources needed to show how successful our project has been.

The team plans to return to Matunda this upcoming October to implement the monitoring and evaluation program, perform an inspection of the system, continue to understand the related Operation and Maintenance aspects of the new system, and to greet our friends in the hospital and the community.

In the coming weeks, the team will be finalizing the Pre-Assessment 530 report to be granted approval by EWB-USA to travel, and then we will continue with fundraising efforts.

More updates to come soon!!!
For now enjoy a short clip of water coming out of the showers for the first time.

Sean Walsh
Project Lead

After three weeks of hard work, laughs, growing relationships, eating sukuma wiki, nyama (meat), and lots of avocados and mangoes, we are back with plenty of experiences to tell and extremely happy that the job was done.

On Sunday Nov 14^th we visited David Engineering’s shop in Nairobi to check the progress of our tower fabrication and were all pleased to see it just needed a coat of paint and was ready to be assembled. We met with our NGO (KAMADEP) to discuss the project and ensure that our vision of the project was aligned. KAMADEP will be providing training sessions for the health centre staff and water board about team building, system management, finance management, etc.

On Monday morning we departed to Eldoret, which was going to be home to the team for the next three weeks. We were greeted by Ben, our driver for the duration of the project, who brought the team to our new home at the Sirikwa Hotel.  At the hotel we met with Andrew Mulati (Dr. Kibunguchi’s Personal Assistant) who was our connection to the community throughout the project.

We traveled to the site for the first time and Steven and I (being the ones returning for a second time) were happily surprised to see how much the health centre (currently a sub-district Hospital) had progressed.  It was much better equipped, with digital scales, a tv, a lab with a microscope and a larger team. We met with the centre’s administration to review the scope of work, walk the site, and make field changes to be based on the new uses of each health centre room (i.e., revised sink locations). We even added a shower to our design for mothers to bathe after giving birth in the maternity ward (during the time we spent there 4 babies were born at the centre and the administration were grateful for the new shower!)

The first week was all about pouring the tower foundation footings, site layout markings, trenching, and meeting with the hospital administration to discuss project ownership.

Our second week saw the much needed addition of two more engineers, Chanel and Monica, to the team. The week involved a lot of construction coordination between plumbing, drainage, tower building, volunteer assignments, and continued coordination with the administration and staff. Chanel’s innovative approach for drainage helped with scheduling when we were unable to obtain certain construction materials and developed an approach for installation of the drainage system distribution boxes. It was a very busy construction site with the tower assembly being completed, plumbing lines and sinks being placed, drainage trenches being filled and laid with pipe…all the while having a good time with the local volunteers and our team. One afternoon was spent watching the crane, which was a few feet shorter than what we needed, make many attempts to place the tank on the tower.

On our last week construction was completed with the water service lines, drainage lines, and plumbing being in place and finalized. The system was connected to the existing borehole and pump and then we had water! We kept the system exposed at all joints and fitting locations to test the system with running water and were happy to find all was well. Water pressures at each tap were above our expectations and the drainage system, despite a couple of leaks, worked effectively.

Without a doubt, the most amazing moment of testing the system was to see the faces of the centre’s staff, especially Katherine’s, the head nurse, when she saw water coming out of the showers. She explained to us that prior, women had to go bathe next to the temporary tank (outside) after giving birth. Her smile and excitement were enough for the team to know our work was both greatly appreciated and invaluable to continued growth of this facility.

There is still plenty of work to do going forward, and we plan to return in early 2011 to assess the project and what impacts it has had on the centre, but for now we can take a moment to congratulate each other, thank everyone who traveled to the site, thank those who helped coordinate in Kenya, and to of course all those who have lent a hand, and a buck, to this project over the past few months. We hope that you can continue  supporting us as we still need to raise over 10k to cover the costs of this past implementation.

Asante Sana!!!

Waiting for the tank to go up

Thanksgiving Celebration

Relaxing day at Nakuru National park

We would like to thank everyone who came out last Friday for the official EWB-TOBER kick off happy hour. The event was held at Turtle Bay (our first time there – great bar – good drinks – good food) and made enough money to cover the costs of the drainage pipes in the women’s ward. We are happy to have raised the funds for that, but we still need to raise enough funds for the entire project!! Please come on out for some more drinks and fun in the coming weeks as part of EWB-TOBER!

We are looking forward to seeing as much of our friends out for the next event on Thursday October 14^th at Calico Jacks on 42 ST at 2nd Ave. The event will be starting at 6 pm.

See you there!!!

Our future events:

Engineer’s Without Border’s and the Matunda Project are proud to announce the first annual EWB-tober. 10 events in the next 3 weeks, so many chances to support the cause, you statistically can not avoid it!

Our generous PB matching corporate program ends in early November, so we are having our BIGGEST DRIVE EVER! The Health Center at Matunda currently has no running plumbing or drainage, no sinks, no permanent water storage, and no hand washing stations. The clinic is THE ONLY HEALTH PROVIDER IN THE REGION. Our sustainable design will provide water and improved healthcare for thousands of villagers.

We are kicking off our month long series of fund raising events this FRIDAY OCTOBER 8 AT TURTLE BAY located at 987 2nd Ave. Fabulous prizes! Special guests! Insane acrobatics!  $10 for a wrist band gets you drink specials for the evening which go the the construction costs of the new water system.  Prizes include soccer jersey’s signed by EWB Chapter Vice President STEPHEN MORSE and Project Lead SEAN WALSH.

Follow us on facebook EWB – Matunda Project for updates and details on the upcoming events. Please contact Sean Walsh at 914.804.3302 or seangwalsh@gmail.com with any questions.

Design structure continued …

The water distribution system’s construction was done to avoid GI piping for health concerns, constructibility hazards and long-term sustainability of the system.

Gravity Water Distribution System:

• 11 sink locations
• 1 public tap-stand (required flow of 2.0 gpm)
• Tap pressure within 10.5 to 11.7 psi at 1/3 of tank capacity
• Designed for moderate use
• Storage tank at 25-ft off grade for maximum head
• Single use taps -3/4-inch brass

Water tower foundation

• Cast in concrete
• Designed to resist overturning
• 6-3-1 mix design

Water Tower

• Designed by a local firm
• All steel construction
• Professionally constructed on-site
• Travel team will provide oversight

Field bolted connections