Thursday, March 22, is World Water Day. It's a good time to remember that people in developing countries still have a very difficult time acquiring good, clean drinking water. March also included International Womens Day, so it's fitting, as well, to stop and think about the fact that women and girls in developing countries still walk long distances for water, and carry it home on their backs, on bicycles, or with the help of donkeys.

Recently in Kenya, a Maasai woman named Ruth Tannin stood surrounded by Maasai warriors with a baby on her hip. They had gathered to show their well to a group of Americans and Kenyans, including my husband Peter and me (Littleton residents). They also wanted to talk about their continuing need for more water.

"It is the women who suffer the most," Ruth said. "We are the beasts of burden in this community. We will ask our sisters in the U.S. to come to our rescue."

Peter and I had gone to Kenya in February 2007 as volunteers for The Foothills CROP Hunger Walk, not to rescue, but to evaluate water projects that may help communities there. Peter is an hydrologist and I am a writer. He went to lend his expertise. I went to witness and assist. Both of us went to see if the money our community raises is making a difference for people in Kenya through Church World Service (CWS).

We found that today in Kenya there is still a great deal of need, and many women are extremely burdened, but that the burden is being lifted slowy community by community. We found that there are communities where small improvements, such as sand dams, have made an enormous difference. We also found that the contributions of people in South Jeffco to the Foothills CROP Hunger Walk are making a positive difference for the people in Kenya through the work of CWS.

We learned that the best solutions to the problem of getting water come from the people in the communities themselves and work over time. Fortunately, CWS enables this process by working in partnership with communities, and other partners in Kenya, and the CROP Walks funds are put to work in these partnerships. The following examples, one of where the need is very great and others of communities where progress has been great, illustrate.

Kaikungu, near Kitui, is a community situated on a dry and dusty hillside, with a beautiful view. There, during the dry season, the women have had to wake up at 2 A.M. on many mornings, leave their husbands and children still sleeping in bed, and go off to fetch water in the dark. They have walked to the Watumba River or have gone to buy from others who have wells. After they access the water, they carry it home, not returning home until 1 P.M. When the women complete the journey, they are too tired to do anything else in their homes or on their shambas (farms). Sometimes, they have walked to get water and back without any breakfast or lunch.

Before the dry season, the women go a shorter distance to an intermittent stream where they scoop into the sand behind a sand dam and access water there. Then, they carry it home. This water is good for many uses, but it is quite salty.

Sand dams are one of the answers to the water situation for many Kenyan communities.They are reinforced concrete dams that are built across dry river beds. Basically, sand collects behind the dams when the rivers run in the rainy seasons. Then, water is retained below the sand, providing a clean water supply into the dry season.

In the dry country of West Pokot, one small sand dam has made a world of difference for the Pokot people who have moved closer to it. The Pokot people celebrate having this simple source of water.

Writes Joshua Mukusya of Excellent Development, "I love the dams more than anything, because they come out of nowhere. We have created springs for our own people." He is a Kenyan who has built over 400 sand dams with communities and partners from outside the country.

Mukusya also urges communities to terrace their hillsides as they farm, preserving the soil, and to plant trees to stabilize the soil. These techniques, along with a well or pipeline where people need an immediate source of safe drinking water to be brought close to the people, can give Kenyans longterm benefits, even for generations, transforming their land and freeing the women and girls.

We met Mukusya at hisplace in Machakos, and it was an inspiration, a working farm in a lush green valley, terraced and planted with trees, where these techniques have been used to wonderful effect.

In contrast, sometimes people will come from outside the communities and give the people a single well, which they promise will solve the people's water problems like magic. We witnessed two instances where this happened and the wells did not solve the problems at all, but exacerbated them.

One instance was in Kaikungu where a well had been drilled but had never been fitted with a pump. In another instance a well had been drilled very close to a working spring in a community and never fitted with a pump. In both instances, the people could not get water from the wells at all. In the latter instance the well endangered the working spring, from which the people could access free water (they'd have to pay for water from the well).

When we arrived in their community, the people of Kaikungu had been waiting nine months for someone to come back to complete their well. They were hoping that we would be able to fix the well, but we weren't able to do that. However, we did press the issue and, at last word, the regional director at CWS had contacted the driller, who was to go complete the well the week after we were there.

One water project we visited,which was an example of a place where progress has been made,was the Masongaleni Community Water Project, near Kbwezi. For the last 12 years, this community has been acquiring safe drinking water from a system implemented by their community in partnership with CWS. It distributes water purchased from a government pipeline at kiosks along the road. Prior to the existence of the system, women and girls walked long distances, expending a great deal of time and energy to get water from the Thange River, which was not even safe to drink, and was quite salty.

With the project in place, women and girls walk or ride bicycles to water kiosks along the road to get water that is safe to drink and of good quality. The community charges people three cents per 20 L can of water. The women fill them at the kiosks, then take them home on bicycles or donkeys or carrying them on their backs, expending much less time and energy.

I met Elizabeth Kiangi at one kiosk. She said that there had been many deaths in families before the project had been put in place and that she used to walk 20-22 kilometers one way to fetch water (about 12 miles); leaving her home at 6 in the morning and arriving back home at 1 in the afternoon. The project, she said, has given them many benefits, including better health, more time, and more cleanliness.

At another of the kiosks, Mary Mueni said that she is now getting water at a close point where she used to spend three to four hours walking for water, and that she can now use that time to work on her farm.

Recently, the community requested that CWS partner with it to extend the pipeline another 20 kilometers to ensure that women from Kyanguli and Ullilinzi also have clean drinking water without having to walk so far to fetch it.

Said Maurice Munyao, "The women are very happy with this water. We thank you. Now we need to take this water down to other people."

Another working water project that is effective is the Umoja water project where Farming Systems Kenya (FSK) and CWS have supported the community as they work to acquire safe drinking water close by to where they live. In this case, the water was brought close to the people with a well and a pump. One family donated the property on which the well sits.

"In the whole world water is life," said Esther, a woman of the community. She said that now the children have gone to school well and clean, not worrying about water, and the young mothers have really benefitted.

Another positive result of the project in Umoja, had been the creation of community; people are communicating and working together because of the water project.

At the Maasai community, mosiro Oloikumkum, where Ruth Tannin lives, a combination of approaches to access water have been created in partnership with CWS, the Arid Lands Resource Management Project, and TD Jakes for the Narok Conservation and Drought Recovery Project, including the well we gathered around.

Ruth said that the women had been worn out all the time and unable to cook because of having to carry water all the time, and that the new well had emancipated them somewhat.

Success and progress are possible for people in developing countries as they work in partnership with helpers like CWS, Farming Systems Kenya, Excellent Development, and others. However, for the projects to work, they must come from, and belong to, the communities.A combination of techniques to acquire water and improve watersheds must be used.

The residents of Littleton can know that the money they raise in the Foothills CROP Hunger Walk is being put to use by CWS effectively, and it is really helping the people in Kenya. That work will continue for women, girls, and their families.