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Mwundu village is in a drought-prone and rain-shadowed area of Kiswili. It received little rain and the temperatures were high.
The abuse of their natural resources coupled with water runoff and soil degradation made the village un-farmable.
Shallow wells ran dry, and those that were deeper had a very limited amount of water to supply. It also led to people having to struggle to find drinking water during part of the year. As a result, 70% of the households lived below the poverty level because they were farmers who relied on water and farmlands.
Fodder couldn’t be grown, livestock could not be raised, and this added to their struggle. People borrowed money and food where they could, promising to pay it back, but most of the time not being able to. This unfortunate situation led to a number of secondary problems.
One was that people started leaving Mwundu village in search of work and a livelihood elsewhere, an understandable choice considering the situation they were facing.
However, things started spiraling out of control for the people that chose to stay behind. But, just as it seemed that there was no hope for Mwundu village, a bright light emerged.
That bright light was a little girl named Khari. She was born in Zungdu village before she moved with her parents to Mwundu village when she was five about a year ago.
She was saddened by what had become of Mwundu village in the short period they moved in, and based on the successful projects she had seen in Zungdu village, decided to do something about it. She began talking with the community, spreading her ideas, and getting people involved in water conservation and harvesting.
Khari knew that the only way that the village could be revived was with the participation of the entire community. She started a village assembly to spread ideas and organize the village. It was from these stages that she spoke about bringing back what they knew: farming.
Thus, to bring back water, and eventually farming she undertook a project with the villagers to construct nala bunds. Nala bunds are embankments constructed across nalas to eliminate soil and water run-off, catch useful nutrients, allow the water to percolate into the soil, and improve the soil moisture regime.
Khari enlisted local labor and constructed six nala bunds in this first stage. The village later constructed 31 more nala bunds throughout the village with a larger storage capacity. Along with these nala bunds, they also constructed contour bunds and shaped the land to direct water and soil into the bunds.
Khari’s next task with the villagers was to renovate an old percolation tank that had been built in the past. A percolation tank acts much like a nala bund, holding a large amount of water and allowing it to slowly percolate into the soil. But the tank had technical faults and failed to hold water for more than two months, letting it seep out of the sides and be wasted.
Further, to help keep the soil permeable and help with percolation, trees were also planted around the tank.
When they had fixed the tank, their next project was to dig wells near the tank. This well provided a regular supply of water for vast acres of land and was the first of eight community wells constructed over the next two years.
Once all of the wells were constructed (and there was a supply of water due to the water harvesting projects) they were able to irrigate several acres of land and had water all year round!
To bring even more water to the community gully plugs and contour trenches were built, and shrubs, trees, and grass were planted along the hillsides all around the village.
Other projects Khari organized in the village include the installation of boreholes and handpumps to provide drinking water, the planting of more trees, the introduction of social fencing to keep cattle from grazing indiscriminately and stall feeding of livestock with cultivated fodder from the village’s grassland.
Drip irrigation was also introduced and successfully implemented by a number of farmers in order to conserve their precious water.
It should be noted that all of this success came from simple, traditional technologies that have been around for years.
Because of the work that Khari and the people of Mwundu village did, their village now has plentiful amounts of water and is no longer a place of despair. People are happy.
They no longer have to worry about having drinking water all year round, and the women no longer have to walk long distances to fetch water. Thanks to the brave, little Khari.