Erusiai Water Project
This first Rotary-MERC collaboration was a partnership of the Samburu Rotary Club in Kenya and the Sunup Rotary in Prescott, Arizona and completed in 2008. A borehole was drilled near the Erusiai Primary School and water pumped to distribution points in the surrounding communities; an expansion funded by World Vision extended the water to a current total of 30,000 people. Erusiai received the “Most Improved School in the District” award for several years following project completion and prepared candidates for secondary school for the first time in its history. The school population has tripled, teacher housing and sanitation facilities constructed, school lunch is provided by a community garden, and asthma and other dust borne diseases virtually eradicated among children.
The success of the school attracted the attention of the National Government and electricity was installed in the school to further support its development. In the early fall of 2016, funding provided by Operation Eyesight has enabled the further development of each water kiosk in the project to be expanded to include showers, toilets, and clothes washing stations. Due to the success of this community led development, the Kenyan government recently announced that it would be building a new school at Erusiai which will include grades all the way through secondary school, a tremendous achievement.