Kenya Water Towers Agency has protected two springs at Taita Taveta County to ensure that the community accesses clean water. The two springs are Mwatongo and Mdangeghu found in the larger Nyache Micro-Catchment Conservation in Taita Sub-County. The springs were identified for protection in March 2018 during a public baraza held in Funju hotspot.
The Agency jointly implemented the project with the County Government of Taita Taveta. The activities undertaken include fencing, construction of draw-off points, intake structures and planting indigenous trees. “We are very grateful to Kenya Water Towers Agency for protecting these two important springs at Wumingu-Kishushe Ward. We already have a plan of piping the water to other downstream communities,” area MCA Hon Salim Kifuso.
Mdangeghu spring serves over 70 households from 4 villages namely: Mdangeghu, Riwa, Mwamenyi and Nyache shopping centre. Initially, one person would take about one hour drawing compared to the current three minutes after construction. Constructing a wider catchment at the intake and a storage tank has made it possible to fetch twenty litres in less than three minutes. At the Mwatongo spring, some work was done in the late 1990s by the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. The works were however incomplete. The intake was dilapidated and open to contamination. The Agency constructed an intake afresh and completed the other pending works. The spring serves over 50 households from Riwa and Kipusi villages.