Need and the water pipeline

This week was illuminating when considering why GOD has brought our family here to Africa. We have mentioned several times in the past how the need is so great here. People will do whatever they can to make a few cents here or there. There are two water supplies serving Kijabe Station as its main sources (out of 5). Both of these sources come from a long distance away. One uses a water driven pump which requires about 100 gallons per minute to pump 25Gallons per minute to Kijabe over 7 KM away. The other is a gravity fed system which collects water from a spring and channels it into a pipeline that is about 6KM away in the other direction from Kijabe. A few of us from the hospital walked to the latter spring to investigate the problems associated with this pipeline. It happened that two weeks ago, someone decided they needed some money so they cut a few pieces of the iron pipe and took them away. We are talking about a 4-5ft section of 3” iron pipe. What you will see in the following pictures are the challenges to get to this pipe to be able to cut it. The terrain is very dangerous and the people who cut the pipe do it at night! This is also the same terrain that freedom fighters, during the MauMau uprising, used to hide from the British in the 1950s.

This is Collins, the hospital Engineer at the beginning of the hike.  The mountains ahead to the left are where we are going.

If you look directly in the middle you will see a few people, Andy and John

who are climbin up.  You can get an idea of the steepness of the terrain.

This is John Kimani and John Karuga at the base of the cliff.  This is the mountain that the

spring issues from.  This cave used to be a hideout for the Mau Mau Freedom Fighters.  Again, you can see that you want to be very careful at the edge.

John Karuiki, the main Kijabe Station Plumber (Known by all as "John the plumber") cuts a Mahindu plant to give us access to the spring catch.  This project was actually developed 12 years ago and it took 500 men 60 days to chip away at the rock cliff, build the spring catch, and dig/lay the water pipeline.  Everything was done by hand!

Another view as John and John (there are a lot of Johns here) come down the pipeline.

Beautiful and Treacherous country.  The pipeline is next to Andy and John in the picture.

Here is an exposed section of pipe.  There are many sections like this that were unable

to be covered (during the initial installation) due to the terrain.  It is sections like these that we need

to somehow cover with soil or concrete to prevent vandalism.

Obviously, walking through the jungle gives us an opportunity to view some of Kenya's natural wildlife.

Here some Colobus Monkees chill out in a tree.

So, need drives people to traverse dangerous land, at night, to steal pipe, which cuts off a major water source, just to make a few cents.  We are working on the problems and coming up with ideas to prevent them in the future.  These will all take time and, GOD willing, these changes will help the whole community, not only with receiving water, but also with jobs so that they can care for their families and not resort to extremes.

It is in HIS Hands.

Jim