How time flies! 2010 came with its share of successes and challenges like any other year. One of our objectives for the New Year was to be engaged in more direct boreholes than subcontracts unlike in the previous year. In this, we have not been disappointed. We started off with a 200m depth borehole at an area called Kamulu on the Ruiru East Block which puts it in Thika District. The borehole was for an individual and was drilled between the 14^th and 17^th January 2010. We ended up drilling to 198.9m a successful borehole yielding 12m³.

Afterwards we headed to Naivasa – Musingini in Yatta District. This was a long awaited contract funded by the Constituency Development Fund (CDF). We had drilled two other boreholes in the area still with the CDF, both successful. However, a change of officers over time had caused a delay in the award of the said borehole. The community had waited since 2007 when we first placed our bid on the borehole in response to a tender invitation, probably even longer than that. Finally, by the grace of God, all doors that had closed up on this job seemed to open up and we were more than eager to undertake the job and help a community that had anxiously waited for this miracle. We successfully drilled the borehole between the 15^th and 17^th February 2010 to 160m and it yielded 3m³.

Masinga Hope Project at Kathukini – Masinga District is a ministry that reaches out to orphans and widows. The borehole was drilled from 22^nd to 25^th Feb 2010 to 102m depth. It yielded 1.8m³.

Kanginga Oasis Academy is a school in Mwingi District, Eastern Province. The borehole was drilled from 14^th – 15^th March 2010 at 102m depth yielding 12m³/hr.

The team later headed out to Nyamira District of Nyanza Province where a market had just been constructed at the Kebirigo town centre. Having water available at the market was crucial to ensure cleanliness and that hygiene standards were met. The borehole was drilled to 112m depth between the 12^th and 17^th April 2010 and yielded 1.2m³.

Kanthonzweni & Kakuyuni were the first subcontracted jobs in 2010. Kathonzweni was drilled from 23^rd to 30^th March 2010 to 200m but was dry. The first dry borehole in the year. Kakuyuni in Kangundo district of Eastern Province was drilled from 7^th to 8^th April 2010 at 138m and yielded 4m³.

In Bungoma, Western Province is Chemwa Children’s Home where we drilled a borehole from 21^st to 23^rd May 2010 to 80m³ and a yield of 1.2m³/hr.

The team took a short break in June to do repairs on the equipment. We are looking forward to several other boreholes in the next half with about four boreholes already scheduled up and many more coming up.

Enziu is a rural semi-arid region in Mwingi District of Eastern Province of Kenya. A recent visit to the area revealed the adverse situation in which the community survives. A manmade dam, Enziu Earth Dam Project with less than 10,000litres of water is what they call their best water source. It’s a miracle that the water never completely dries up. Somehow, God keeps refilling it so that those who come to fetch do not lack. The community has formed a committee to manage the dam to ensure it is not interfered with by animals. The members contribute a fee that employs a guard to look after the water. Non members pay Kshs.70 (less than a dollar) per month to fetch water. About 10kilometres (6.2miles) from that dam, two rivers once converged, these too are completely dry. Desperate villagers sink wells that seem to chase after the underground water reservoir. Hand dug shallow wells are deepened with every passing day of the dry spell, as far down as the water level will go. 

School children are sent to fetch water or a woman and her donkeys with several cows trotting behind. They construct a wooden trough just next to the well from which the animals drink as the women and children fill up their cans. The water level is so low that there’s no way of fetching it without mixing with some sand particles. Not to mention that their feet will crush the lower sand walls as they go down the well to fetch the water, further contaminating the water. Having walked for miles under the humid heat and dying of thirst, a villager bends down to drink up the water, completely oblivious of the diseases one can contract. From cholera to typhoid, the swelled up stomachs of school children demonstrate that.

Drilling for Life, with help Lancaster Evangelical Free Church Koinonia Sunday School Class in Pennsylvania is putting up efforts to provide access to clean portable water for the Enziu Community. DFL is raising funds from the Church and well wishers to help this community by providing a borehole that will serve over 120 families in Enziu. Putting up a borehole in the area will give hope to this community and improve their standard of living as well their health. A nearby well drilled by DFL in another area of Mwingi called Kiomo evidences how much benefit a borehole can bring to a community. In Kiomo, they have used the borehole to irrigate a local green house yielding tomatoes which the community earns a livelihood from. Our hope and aim is that Enziu will equally be transformed as we drill for them a borehole, thus giving them access to clean portable water. Well wishers are welcome to send their donations to:

DRILLING FOR LIFE

266 Vera Cruz Road, Reinholds, PA 17569 USA

For more information email here