Subject: Help us Have Clean and Safe Water

Moses Nyagaka Okioga, Fred Mango, and David Nyabuto Ogachi in Kenya

On Nov 11, 2006, at 12:15 AM, David Nyabuto Ogachi wrote:

Dear sir/madam,
My community in Bosiango is suffering. Many people in this community suffer from water borne diseases, particularly women and children. After carrying the needs assessment I came up with the idea of starting a project of piped , clean, and safe water. Please could you assist?
Yours Sincerely,
David N Ogachi.

Hi David,
Where is Bosiango? Are you near Nairobi? I helped install rainwater water storage tanks at some of the primary schools in the Mua hills. The tanks were from Kentainers in Nairobi. Do you have buildings that would be suitable for catching rain?
My site is raincatcher.org
yours in friendship,
Jack Rose

On Nov 17, 2006, at 2:33 AM, David Nyabuto Ogachi wrote:

Dear sir,
I do not live near Nairobi, I live in Western Kenya, right on the floor of the Great Rift Valley where water is like gold — the driest area. I became interested in this issue of water because of the situation in which my community finds itself. Rivers in this area are seasonal, full during the rainy season, only to go dry as the rains recede (like the present condition in East Africa today). Every one is affected yes, but women and children are worst hit. Children who go to school do so without doing proper washing — you know the consequence of this. The less water which is available is brown with mud and dirt, therefore quite unsafe for both drink and general use. PLEASE HELP. Yes we have houses that have roofs capable of harvesting a large volume of water yet the people lack the financial capacity to purchase the tanks. We need tanks in schools that number almost 10 and other social gathering points.

Hi David,
We can get tanks from Kampala or Arusha. Which city are you closest too? I’ve included some maps. Can you show your location? You can also email photos if you have a digital camera. I have a filter that you can put the dirtiest river water through and get clean drinking water. It’s called a slow-sand filter and you can read about it by going to raincatcher.org and reading the RainCatcher Peru article. There you can click on the link for Blue Future Filters – bluefuturefilters.com – and find out about this amazing system. It is the highest rated by the UN and W.H.O. Also a good filter can be found at Katadyn.com

Two sources of water — the rain and the river. With tanks set up on school buildings, we collect and store fresh water when it rains. When the supply runs out over long periods of no rain, you can put river water through the filter and get clean water to drink. I can work on fund raising here if you can organize people on your end to help set these up. Is there an NGO established in or around your area that we can work with? Let me know. The goal will be to have systems in place before the arrival of the next rainy season. Can you tell me when the next rainy season begins?
Yours in friendship,
Jack Rose

Dear sir,
Thank you so much for your e-mail.
I live in the southern part of province 6 at the border with province 4 I think the closest city might be Kampala. Electricity is so bad today – it is on and off – my cyber cafes are almost off. Please reply soon.
Yours in friendship,
David N.Ogachi

Dear Sir,
Because of power problems I was forgetting another important thing. As a matter of fact I already have people on the ground who are working to install water system in the schools and social gathering centers I mentioned, however the cost of doing this is skyrocketing. We have an NGO in our area called Dano agency which I think would help. The next rain season is just beginning. I hope to hear from you soon.
Yours in friendship,
David N.Ogachi.

Hi David,
Can you please give me an email contact with someone from Dano?
Or have them contact me. Any photos will be helpful,
Yours in friendship,
Jack Rose

Email to Kentainers in Nairobi

Water Storage Tanks – fredmango@kentainers.com

KENYA
Kentainers Limited
Embakasi Road, Off Airport North Road
P.O Box 42168,GPO Nairobi, Kenya.
Tel: (254)-(20) 823513-5,823442-4
(Hotline) (254)-(20)-6750993,6750984
Fax: 823927,331502

Hi All,
A couple years ago I helped install water storage tanks at schools in the Mua Hills above Nairobi. I worked with a group from California called ‘Water For Children – Africa’. The tanks were supplied by Kentainers. See photos. I am contacting your company now in regards to an upcoming project in Bosiango. Below is the email correspondence that describes what David and I are attempting to do. Can you give me prices for water storage tanks delivered to Bosiango? How long a drive is it from Nairobi to Bosiango? Would it be better to ship from Crestanks in Kampala? I plan to work with an NGO in your region. Do you have a recommendation? Any information and images will be helpful,
Thanks,
Jack Rose

On Nov 20, 2006, at 9:32 AM, fredmango@kentainers.com wrote:
You will be responded to within 12hours . Thank you once again for your Interest and Concern about our products and services. Regards, System Administrator

Hi Fred,
Here’s a copy of the latest email exchange with Moses & David in Bosiango.
Thanks,
Jack

On Nov 21, 2006, at 4:43 AM, Moses Nyagaka wrote:

Dear sir, I am MOSES NYAGAKA OKIOGA , I am a writer. Some of my works are on sale through Amazon.com – just log to site and ask for RELEGATED TO THE WILD. I am 46 years old Kenyan, a father of three. What i am proud of is that I am a friend to people. I am always eager to help — I am told JACK ROSE has got the same trait in his personality…We have an NGO here, D.A.N.O Agencies, which helps people who have WATER problem. David N.Ogachi told me to contact you. At the moment we are making an effort to assist people, few of them to put up containers to catch the on going rain — but we lack funds. Regrettably we have never thought wise to photograph whatever we are doing, sorry, therefore we will dispatch someone to Nairobi to buy a digital camera. No one is selling the thing here. Thank you for offering the containers they will make a big difference. To assist install some of these tanks we have here I humbly request you to send some funds (if they are available) so that these friends of ours would benefit. Should you find yourself in a position of doing it Please use either MONEYGRAM or WESTERN MONEY Transfer cashed in KISII KENYA
Yours sincerely, Moses Nyagaka Okioga.

Hi Moses,
Thanks for writing. I have an email into Kentainers. When I hear back I will get a contact person for you to meet with when you go to Nairobi. You can pick out the water tanks that are right for your use. Have pictures taken of you with the tanks and have Kentainers email them to me. Also I need images of you and David and others with the houses, schools and other buildings that will be getting tanks. You need to take some measurements and let me know how many rain gutters you will need. I will have Kentainers deliver the gutters with the tanks and put the name RainCatcher on all the tanks. After they are set up I will need you to email photos of you and friends standing with the new water tanks. Then I will come to take more pictures and to visit other sites that need RainCatchers. The idea is to use each project to help create the next project, causing a chain-reaction until everyone has clean water to drink. This, of course could never happen without responsible people doing all the ground work on your end.

Thank you for helping. If you get to Kentainers soon, ask for Fred Mango. He is the one who emailed me. You will need to tell him exactly how many tanks and gutters you need so he can set up a business structure with me to get this all going. We will all work together to bring clean water to your families. The rain is freely given in such abundance. All we have to do is receive it. I look forward to doing that with you and David and your whole community.

I am a writer, too. When I come to Kenya we can trade stories.
Until then we will catch rain.
Yours in friendship.
Jack Rose

Hi Fred,
Below is a copy of an email from Moses and my reply

On Nov 22, 2006, at 2:36 AM, Moses Nyagaka wrote:
Hi, jack,
Thank you for writing. We would like to travel to Nairobi on Friday, please get the contact whom we are going to meet. I have made the measurements of the rain gutters and I have come up with the following: 10 schools – 2,400ft; 2 churches – 360ft; 8 families – 480 feet. You may be aware (because you have been to Kenya) that the type of soil we have here is hostile to plastics. Therefore the concrete base could be needed. My organization has run out of funds. It is good to have our pictures but due the fact that we do not have a digital camera we will send them once we buy it from Nairobi. Yes I am responsible, in fact I must be, because of the past experiences.
Yours in friendship,
Moses Nyagaka Okioga.

Hi Moses & David,

Below is the Kentainers contact:

I will pass on the gutter info to Fred and ask him to take pictures of all three of you in front of the tanks you pick out. He can email them to me. I need these for storytelling here. I plan to raise funds in January and come to Kenya in February.

I am a rain catcher. I will tell your story and have people purchase water storage tanks directly from Kentainers for your community. After we have successfully completed your project we will use it as a model for how people can work to catch clean water for drinking, one village at a time. We will want to start a chain reaction. If, starting in January, we could help to create one water project per month — that would be my goal. I think we can do it.

Another way to build a foundation for the water tanks is leveling the ground, placing an iron ring on the level spot and filling the ring with sand. I will ask Fred Mango if his company can supply one ring per tank. The idea is for everything needed (foundation ring, gutters & tank to be delivered at the same time. Set-up in one day. Then we dance when the rains come.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Jack Rose

The rainwater that falls from the sky is unlimited — why should our capacity to catch, store and use it be limited? We are preparing for a second trip to Africa to catch rain. My first trip took me to South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania in April of 2004.  I traveled through Africa with a group headed by Vickie Butcher, called Water for Children Africa. Starting in San Diego, California, our first stop was Johannesburg, South Africa where we spent a week visiting settlements and hospitals delivering supplies for mothers and children with HIV/Aids. Most of these sites will be receiving RainCatchers on future trips. Then we visited Kenya and Tanzania, setting up water storage tanks to provide clean drinking water for schools in the Mua Hills north of Nairobi.

Many people, back in the States and in Africa, contributed time, creativity and resources  to make this work possible. Every step along the way we were received with open arms and high hopes. Securing a reliable source of clean water is the first order of business. Everywhere we went I was invited to travel out to rural schools, orphanages, farms and clinics to design RainCatchers. As I toured a wide variety of locations and situations another need  became obvious: Shade! After the rain comes the hot sun, then the big RainCatcher tent  becomes a giant parasol, providing shaded gathering places. In most poor areas there are no trees, no shelter from the sun. People will be able to have a clean drink of water and a little bit of shade. While  in Africa I  worked with  suppliers to carry the necessary tanks and tents for rainwater harvesting so that from  America we can raise funds and, through email, purchase more RainCatchers and have them transported to new locations. These will be set up by the truck drivers who deliver the tanks. The networks are already well established. An eager workforce awaits our green light.

The beauty, color and texture of Africa is indescribable, the people as friendly and open as I have ever met. Each country is very distinct from the others. South Africa is a perfect home base , reminds me of California, but more European. Very cosmopolitan, diverse, and hopeful in the face of extreme adversity. Remember, this ancient place is home to a ten year old democracy. The window for change is right now. Progressive ideas have a chance to bloom here. It is exciting to be a part of a story so historically rich and also open to advancement.

I wrote this story from an Internet cafe in Arusha, Tanzania, on the high plains near Kilimanjaro. After traveling to the edge of the earth I found myself in the middle of the world, meeting a novel’s worth of interesting characters from everywhere. The equatorial highlands of East Africa are tropical at 6000ft elevation, blending the best of mountains and jungle. It is truly a world crossroads, a wild west with Marco Polos and Maasai and every imaginable color and culture, all blended together.

The purpose of upcoming travel to Africa, along with actually setting up RainCatchers, is to document the installation process and display it on the Internet so  people in need of safe drinking water all around the world can learn how to make their own. Built in a day, using local materials, the RainCatcher will become an immediate source of drinking water. Overnight, with the first rains, a remedy for the age old problem of inadequate and dangerous water supplies can be implemented. While it may take years and decades, if ever, for new dams and delivery infrastructure to arrive on the scene, people can begin today to develop their own pure water supply, at very little expense, with no bureaucratic or logistical road blocks.

Let it rain.