After nearly a week full of 8 hour days with nothing but data analysis and report writing, the first draft of our report is finally competed! Each of the five subject groups writes their own report and analysis and after the program the reports will be combined into one paper. Our first draft is a little over 15 pages including 5 different data tables.

Here are a few statistics from our report:

Total population studied – 909

67% of female and 82% of male heads of the household have received no education

Main source of income – pastoralist

Main source of water – pipeline (streams are second most utilized source)

73% do not treat their water

75% believe that they have access to adequate water sources

85% believe that their water is safe to drink

5% of those using the stream as their main water source said they also toilet in the source


The pipeline is a government project created and managed by the Pipeline Corporation of Kenya and draws water from a protected spring fed by Mount Kilimanjaro. While this water is a protected source and does not suffer from the same contamination as open sources such as streams, it receives no water treatment. The biggest problem we have identified is that people believe that because the water is coming from a pipe it is treated. The high percentage of people who believe that their water is safe and do not treat their water are mainly a representation of the majority that is using the pipeline. We are currently tracking down water testing results from the local clinic to see what kind of condition the pipeline water, and also the stream water is in.

We found an elevated risk of enteric illness associated with households that use a stream as their primary source of water. Because of the drought there is now competition between agriculture, livestock and human use and the mixture is likely causing serious contamination problems. A few people even reported that animals are dying because of the drought and their carcasses are being found near or in water sources.

The Mbirikani Health Clinic provides the public with water treatment options however, there is an issue convincing people to actually use them. We now know that part of this issue is because a large portion of people think they are drinking water that is already treated. Cultural boundaries also pose a lot of opposition.

There are between 60-70 people expected to come to our presentation this Sunday and this number includes government officials, community members and health leaders. We have the rest of the week to finalize our report and create our presentation which we will rehearse with translators Friday afternoon.

Tomorrow we have our last free day and will be doing another hike in the morning, then spending the evening at the market and “Club Kimana.”