We have been stymied on our dam building plans in the Sagana Maganjo Water project. Sorry about that for those who contributed to this project. We were allotted a valley in the Mt. Kenya Forest Reserve by the local government water authorities because people were complaining that our irrigation scheme was draining the Sagana River. Our irrigation project there serves 170 small farms and the Sagana River is fed from the snow on top of Mt. Kenya which is decreasing. For over a year we have been delayed permission by the Ministry of Forests. Our people think that a politician from the Sagana area is the one behind this blockage. I doubt very much that the blockage is because of environmental concerns because our valley has no trees and no homes would be affected by a lake behind the dam.

But we have been forging ahead with many other projects. We recently completed a borehole project in Bungoma, 400 miles to the west of Nairobi. This borehole serves a hospital run by The Little Sisters of St. Francis, a nursery school, and their home. Their home is a big one with about 15 rooms because it is the Center for their community in western Kenya. The Sisters delight in their shower which now works after many years of being without water. When I stayed there on December 27th last year, I struggled to bathe with a bucket of water. I tried that shower, myself, in July on my trip to Tanzania.

I regard the Bungoma project as FINISHED. Also finished is our borehole project in Langata, a southwest suburb of Nairobi. This borehole supplies water to the home of 15 of our Little Sisters of St. Francis who attend nearby Catholic University of East Africa and Tangaza College. Also helped is an adjacent retreat house for up to 100 guests. On the drawing board is a hostel for 200 girls who will attend the same university and college. Other projects that are FINISHED are the borehole at Kibagare (6 years ago) in the outskirts of Nairobi. Seven hundred grade school children (boarding), 400 secondary school girls (also boarding) and about 500 neighbors benefit from this pure water. Also, a borehole project at Komorock (five years ago), a village about 30 miles east of where I live, is finished. One thousand people benefit and people from surrounding villages come with their oxcarts and pick up trucks to fill their barrels with water. Likewise finished, is our borehole at Kabati, 120 miles to the north and east of Nairobi. This serves a grade school, technical school, and nursery school and the Sisters convent, altogether about 1000 people. In our huge project in the Mua Hills, about 40 miles East of Nairobi, 4000 people get water in various villages and areas in the Hills. The women are spared a three mile walk to the nearest muddy water hole. The leaders of the project have just paid $2500 for some repairs there with the money they get from selling water at 3 cents per 5 gallon container. All our borehole projects charge for the water in order to defray the expenses of electricity and maintenance.

I would like to think that other projects are finished but problems and additions keep coming up. We put in a new pump complete with pump house and water storage tanks at the Mua Hills Girls High School (boarding), 40 miles east of Nairobi. They have the rare blessing of having a spring in a gorge about a half mile below their school. We started pumping this spring water in November of last year. But our one-cylinder pump vibrated rather violently. We had to tear out the floor which was ripping apart and rebuild a firmer floor. They previously had been using an ancient generator and pump from colonial times to pump water from this spring, but the pump part of this assembly wore out. I’m searching for a technician to repair that old pump as a back up for when things go wrong with the new pump. Up on top at the school they had two old huge water storage tanks which I’m told were used as swimming pools in colonial times. These caught rain water from off various roofs of the school buildings. One of these tanks burst during this year’s rains. Rain water is the best water you can get. I’m replacing the burst tank with five, 3000-gallon plastic storage tanks.

Since rain water is the best and also the cheapest, we have also built two huge water storage tanks to catch rain water for The Assumption Sisters Girls High School in Tawa (also boarding), 120 miles east and north of Nairobi. One tank holds 27,000 gallons and the other 20,000 gallons. In Mbooni Mission, 100 miles east of Nairobi where there is also a boarding school for 800 girls, we have constructed a 27,000 gallon cement water storage tank to catch rain water. In the nearby priest’s house and nearby convent we put a new pump in their old borehole which was lying dormant for many years. We installed all the necessary electrical switches, circuit breakers, conductors etc. and installed pipes to their respective homes. We drilled a borehole in Wote, also 100 miles east of Nairobi but in a different direction. At Wote The Assumption Sisters of Nairobi plan to build a big boarding high school for girls.

We have several projects on the drawing board. The most notable is at the Little Sisters of St Francis Novitiate in Same, Tanzania. They presently get water from a spring high, high up in the mountain that you see in the photo to your left. They are building a boarding high school for girls. The spring water will not be enough. So my plans are to drill a borehole with all the things that go with it and build a storage tank or two to catch the rain water.

I have not included all of our projects, but I think you get the idea that water is a scarce commodity in most of Africa, at least in the parts that I’m familiar with. I get many requests for help. Enough for my lifetime, I’m sure. Every project is a struggle but I forget the agonizing struggle when people turn on their faucet and get pure water. I know that the alternative is muddy, polluted water from some hole miles away. And I know you cannot run boarding high schools without water.

The little fellow on the right is saying: “Can you lend me a hand?” If you can, here is how to do it. Please make your checks payable to Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers and send to:

Mission Promotion Department
P.O. Box 302
Maryknoll, NY 10545-0302

In a brief letter included with the check, please indicate that you want to designate your gift for the water projects of Fr. John Lange.

Or, if you prefer to contribute online using your credit card, please click HERE and choose the option indicating for "Fr. John Lange, M.M. ministry needs"

Part of the 12 mile pipe line at Sagana Maganjo	Ruptured tank at Mua Hills Girls High School	27,000 gallon water tank at Assumption School at Tawa

Learn more about John's Ministries

John's Biography             John's Reflections

     View the Photo Album of John's Ministries    

John may be contacted by Email at:   MklKenya@wananchi.com

Maryknollers in Nairobi, Kenya