Blog
Since launching the Clean Water Access Initiative, One Vision CBO has been working methodically through Mwiki Sub-Location — not rushing to install as many taps as possible, but working street by street to understand where the need is greatest and where a new or rehabilitated water point will actually reach the households that need it most. Here's a look at how the project actually works, from the first site visit to the moment a household turns on a tap for the first time.
Step One: Mapping the Need
Before any drilling or plumbing work begins, our team walks the target area with residents and local administration, mapping existing water sources, noting which are functional, which are seasonal, and which are simply too far from certain clusters of households. This mapping exercise is unglamorous but essential — it's what stops us from installing a water point 200 metres from an existing functional one while a neighbourhood three streets away goes without.
Community meetings, or barazas, are held at this stage so residents can flag locations that maps and satellite images miss — the compound that floods during rains and cuts off access to the nearest tap, the area where the existing borehole has been broken for eight months, and so on.
Step Two: Installation and Testing
Once a site is confirmed, our team works with licensed contractors and, where applicable, the local water authority to install or rehabilitate the water point. Every new source is water-quality tested before it's opened to the public — this isn't optional. A water point that looks functional but delivers contaminated water does more harm than having no water point at all, because it creates false confidence.
Where an existing borehole or tap has broken down due to a mechanical fault rather than a dry aquifer, rehabilitation is often faster and cheaper than drilling new, which is why our team always assesses existing infrastructure before recommending a brand-new installation.
Step Three: Handover to the Community
This is the stage that determines whether a water point survives its first year. Before a tap is officially opened, we work with residents to form or strengthen a local water user committee — typically five to seven members elected by the households the point serves. This committee sets a small, affordable fee per jerrican (enough to cover routine maintenance, not to generate profit), keeps basic records, and is trained to identify early signs of pump trouble before a small issue becomes an expensive breakdown.
One Vision CBO stays engaged after handover too, checking in periodically and providing a direct contact for committees to reach us if a repair is beyond what they can manage locally.
Coordinating With Local Administration and Utilities
None of this work happens in isolation from existing local structures. Before any site is finalised, our team consults with the area chief's office and, where a site falls within reach of Nairobi's formal water utility network, with the relevant utility office to check for planned expansions or conflicts with existing infrastructure. Skipping this coordination step risks duplicating effort or, worse, installing a community water point in a location the utility later develops formally, wasting the investment entirely.
This coordination also matters for long-term legitimacy. A water point developed with the area administration's awareness and support is far less likely to face disputes over land use, and residents are more confident using and paying into a water user committee that operates with that visible official backing rather than as an entirely informal, unrecognised arrangement.
Funding a Single Water Point, Start to Finish
Prospective donors and partners often ask what it actually costs to bring one water point from initial assessment to a working tap serving the community. The answer varies by site — whether an existing borehole needs simple rehabilitation or a new one must be drilled entirely, and how far the distribution network needs to extend to reach the target households — but every cost estimate we share with a partner is broken down by these specific stages, rather than presented as a single opaque figure.
This breakdown lets a partner choose to fund a specific stage that matches their budget — covering just the hydrogeological survey for a new site, for instance, or fully sponsoring the rehabilitation of a single broken borehole — rather than requiring a full end-to-end commitment to get involved at all.
A Realistic Picture of Setbacks Along the Way
Not every site has gone exactly to plan. At least one planned rehabilitation was delayed several months waiting on a specific spare part, and another site required a second, more thorough hydrogeological survey after the first indicated a less reliable yield than hoped. We share these setbacks openly with the community and with partners funding specific sites, because pretending every project proceeds smoothly would eventually undermine the credibility of the successes we do report.
The Clean Water Access Initiative is ongoing, and every new water point brings us closer to a Mwiki where no household has to choose between time, money, and health just to fill a jerrican. If your organisation, business, or church group would like to help fund the next site, contact us at info@onevisioncbo.site.