Enabling a greater level of focus

Published in December 2025

Access to adequate water supply in schools has significant implications on the health, hygiene and overall wellbeing of pupils and staff alike. When water supply is low in dryland regions of Africa, pupils often have to collect and provide water for themselves, leading to disruption and an interrupted education. Here, we learn via Mba Secondary School in southeast Kenya, how school water tanks can enable a greater level of focus and help pupils to thrive thanks to nearby access to water.

Mba Secondary School is both a day and boarding school located in Sakai Village in Makueni County, Kenya. This dry area is subject to drought conditions, unreliable rains, as well as inadequate infrastructure for water storage and limited access to clean water sources, which means water challenges are common.

Mutuku Muange, the school’s deputy principal, explains how they tried to overcome these challenges, but with subsequent negative effects:

“Parents of the students attending this school would bring water to the school using donkeys. But when some parents failed to fulfil this duty, we’d be left struggling, and forced to send children to fetch water from the river which is several kilometres from the school.”

Faith Musenya, a pupil at the secondary school explains why this solution was unsustainable. She says:

“If your parent didn’t adhere to bringing water to school, then the (respective) student would be sent home or sent to fetch water. We wasted much of the time looking for water. Sometimes, food would be delayed because of not having water. This affected us in class.”

Boarding school pupils had another set of challenges due to the poor access to clean water, namely their ability to keep themselves and their rooms and shared spaces clean. Mr Muange recalls these old times:

“The boarding wing also faced it rough as they did not have enough water to wash their clothes. Many times, the hygiene in general was left compromised exposing the students and teachers to diseases that could make them stay away from school for weeks.”

Times have changed now due to the school water tank project that was built with the support of Sand Dams Worldwide and our southeast Kenyan partner, the Africa Sand Dam Foundation (ASDF). Pupil Faith notes the difference:

“Since we got a school water tank, life is good. We no longer struggle to get water. Our parents are not stressed anymore (about the water issue), I am loving the school, and I hope to do very well in my examinations.”

Very importantly, Mr Muange has plans to change the structure of the school from a partial day and boarding school to a full boarding school, allowing more time and space for the children to study. He says this decision is only possible due to the availability of water provided by the water tank.

Mba Secondary School is an example of what strides schools can make when they have a reliable on-site source of clean water. Without it, children struggle to eat well, clean themselves, have a clean space for studying, or they could miss school altogether and fail achieve their full educational potential. 

Please donate what you can today and protect children’s health and education with school water tanks and access to clean water