Clean Water in Nairobi

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.’”
— Matthew 25:40

The children stood patiently in front of the water purifier our team built for their school. Each of them held a drinking cup, eagerly waiting for their turn to get some of the first water. Their eyes shone with excitement, and when their teacher gave them the go-ahead, they lined up with their little colorful plastic cups. I opened the tap and the clean water began to fill them. As they drank the sweet, purified water, the joy on their faces beamed! “Gooood!” several of them said, many of them, wide-eyed and between drinks from their cups, loudly exclaimed, “Thank you!!”

Tears filled our eyes as we witnessed the fruit of our labors to bless these little children with something rare in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya: clean, safe drinking water! Our Torchgrab Africa volunteer team worked for three days building the stands, assembling tanks and filtration components, supply lines, and spigots. It was a labor of love!

Clean drinking water is a key element of a healthy, disease-free life. However, in virtually all slum water, diseases such as typhoid fever, Cholera, Dysentery, and Leptospirosis are all too common. Additionally, a wide range of waterborne parasitic infections afflict children and adults, including hepatitis, Giardia Lamblia, Cryptosporidium, Amebiasis, Entamoeba Histolytica, and Naegleria Fowleri, which causes a severe, often fatal, brain infection. According to parasitologists, contaminated food and water are the primary transmission vectors.

Do I have your attention yet?

According to UNICEF, “In Kenya, 9.9 million people drink directly from contaminated surface water sources.” By conservative estimates, over 2,000 children in Kenya die each day from drinking unsafe water containing waterborne microbial and chemical poisoning! These shocking data don’t even take into account the long-term devastating effects of neurotoxic metals and chemical contaminants on the brains of students, thus diminishing their cognition and ability to learn. There is no way to calculate the full extent of how this negatively affects the entire nation. 

What are we doing about it?

Nearly four years ago, God inspired me with a plan to build an inexpensive, simple, and effective water purification solution for the staff and students attending our schools in the slum of Nairobi, Kenya.

It works on a simple gravity system requiring no pumps, using float valves and high-efficiency filter elements. It is fully scalable to supply nearly 300 liters of purified (not just filtered) water per day for the students and the staff. I travel to Kenya at regular intervals to perform upgrades and maintenance of these systems. This past summer, I upgraded the systems to include a powerful UVB sterilization light in the storage tanks, which destroys 100% of microbial contaminants! Hellen Nguthiru, Petra School Founder and Director, reported that within a week after receiving this purified liquid gold, the number of children experiencing stomach ailments and having to leave their classes to get medical attention dramatically decreased! 

The need is great, and our efforts are just a proverbial “drop in the bucket.” Yet, I’m thankful that at least the students attending Petra Schools are receiving purified drinking water free of disease-causing chemicals, heavy metals, and dangerous biological infections. It’s all part of our overall strategy to provide a quality education, safety, nutritious food, and clean water to give them a chance at a better future. Most importantly, God is pleased and Jesus is massively glorified!