The human-elephant conflict arises in our work because elephants love fresh, cold borehole water, freshly grown crops, and new toys (such as plastic water tanks). Therefore, elephants are critical in our project design, development, and implementation. Here, we’ll explain how these majestic creatures impact our projects.

Humans & Elephants — Friends or Foes?

It’s said that elephants were the original road-makers. Over the past 6 million years, these animals busted their way out of the deeply-forested jungles of central Africa, knocking down everything in their path. Some elephants remained in the open grasslands while others kept going into new territories. The paths forged by these massive animals allowed other species, like early humans, to travel out of Africa and into the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.

Elephants led the way. We followed—at a healthy distance.

It turns out that elephants and humans have many of the same needs, the most critical of which is water. Elephants can smell water up to 12 miles away, making them exceptional guides towards this life-sustaining resource.

However, when humans began growing food and transitioning from hunter-gathers to farmers, the human-elephant conflict intensified. Being herbivores, elephants are always eager to splurge on an open field of freshly grown crops. Farmers were forced into a compromising choice—do I kill this elephant or feed my family? This age-old conflict is still present everywhere humans and elephants coexist, and Kenya’s no exception.

The desire for elephant tusks further threatened the species. After ivory harvesting was outlawed, poaching grew rapidly. A global effort to save elephants began, and conservation organizations were formed to protect these precious animals. In our area, the Kenya Wildlife Service, Amboseli Ecosystem Trust, Save the Elephants, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Amboseli Trust for Elephants, Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, and World Wildlife Fund all safeguard elephants and their livelihoods. But conflicts—and ways of preventing them—persist, as necessary considerations for Maasai communities and those who help them develop.

Elephants and Agriculture

Elephants raid crop fields, destroy expensive fences, and break into storehouses where harvests are kept. All of this increases conflict and creates risky environments for communities. Farming with elephants nearby is nearly impossible, which is why we don’t use community boreholes to water crops.

There are several emerging solutions to this problem. In partnership with an outside organization, the communities around Imisygio and Imurtot constructed an electric fence around their farmlands. It’s mostly worked, though a hungry elephant can breach almost any fence. The downsides are that the fence only surrounds a small region, was very expensive to install, requires constant outside investment to maintain, and doesn’t eliminate conflict.

Another series of solutions has promise, but currently it’s not scalable. Save the Elephants has shown that putting beehives around the perimeter of a farm is a strong deterrent; however, this too requires constant upkeep and a healthy environment for bees, something not guaranteed in southern Kenya. Another idea is planting hot peppers around the perimeter—elephants don’t like spicy smells. Again, it’s hard to deter a hungry elephant.

The safest way to prevent elephants from destroying a farm is to not have a farm. This is a reason why many Maasai keep livestock. Go figure, elephants just don’t find cattle all that interesting.

Borehole Infrastructure

The cost of a community borehole is $80,000 – $100,000. This is a great investment on behalf of our community of givers as well as the community receiving the well, as we require some form of buy-in on their part. But why are our water projects so expensive compared to other clean water organizations’ projects?

There are two main reasons:

1. The water table in this area is deep, with some of our projects reaching 300 meters during drilling. Pulling water up from so far beneath the surface requires a strong pump, generator, and infrastructure to house these materials.
2. Elephants will destroy weak construction. Sheet metal, drywall, or plastic will never last if an elephant encounters it, so concrete construction is essential at each of our borehole projects.

Sturdy, reliable hardware is an expensive but critical step for a sustainable WASH project. Saving money on one step could result in a system failure, leaving the community without water for weeks at a time. It’s better to invest upfront to ensure the water stays on.

Elephants Make Us Stronger

Most of the time, human-elephant conflict is viewed negatively. But we believe that these animals deserve our respect. It’s up to us to figure out how to prevent elephants from destroying our projects, and maybe even have enough water in the tank to give them a drink if they mosey by our projects one day.

The great power of these animals has required us to build projects and water systems that last. 82% of our projects are still online, compared to the global average of about 35%. We can credit some of that success to the stoic, ingenious masters of this environment. Elephants are animals we can respect and learn from, if we allow them to teach us.

It’s because of elephants that humans had roads to spread across the earth. It’s because of elephants that Water is Life Kenya has learned to build projects that last. And it’s because of elephants that we have learned the value of protecting endangered animals and the beautiful world they live in.

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It’s a Small World, the saying goes — so small, in fact, that CoroAllegro hopes to take you “Around the World in Eighty Minutes” at its choral concert later this week. 

This amazingly diverse and intense collection of folk and local music, packed into a program less than an hour and a half in length, spans six continents, 15 different cultures and 11 languages.

The program is mostly locally grown folk music —  a wild Scottish dance, a tender Korean love ballad, a sentimental American tune, a popular Argentinian bossa nova, an evocative Estonian ode. There’s a Ukrainian shepherd song, driving and intense; a hand-clapping Arabic invocation of praise; an anguished, layered musical poem where tribal Aboriginal folk struggle with the overwhelming confusion of modern, civilized chaos. 

And there’s the sweet, sentimental Irish ballad “Danny Boy.”  Around the world with your head still spinning, but home in time for bed!

“There is so much unique cultural expression that comes through the music,” says Sam Stein, CoroAllegro’s interim music director.

The group’s hope, he says, is that music brings humankind together into community. 

Consider a Ukrainian shepherding song, set against a Russian folk dance — two songs from countries currently locked in a death match. Challenged to justify his programming decision, Stein said, “The people who made the music have no animosity toward one another.”

CoroAllegro is something of a musical institution in the area.  Now in its 36^th season, it has established a reputation for creative and sometimes unusual programming. The group has been known for taking chances, chorally speaking, including commissioning a number of new works from local and nationally known composers, and presenting challenging pieces from outside of the traditional canon. 

Recent offerings include “Madrigal Mystery Tour” (a Beatles review), “Fifty Years of Disney,” and an entire program featuring women composers.

“We are trying to bring the music to a broader audience” says Becky Kelly, board president. “Through partnering and collaborating with local groups, we support the causes that we believe in while we make the best music we’re capable of.”

CoroAllegro (loosely translated from the Italian — “Merry Choir”) is a labor of love for its singers, who include both professional musicians and experienced amateurs. Periodically, it expands its chamber choir profile to become CoroAllegro and Friends, inviting singers from the area to join in putting on larger-scale works with orchestral accompaniment. 

Speaking of partnering with local groups, CoroAllegro is sharing the platform (literally) this time with Water Is Life Kenya (WILK).

This vital Newark-based nonprofit is focused on getting water access for the indigenous and drought-stricken Maasai people of Kenya. 

“We have 27 active clean water projects, and we’ve been able to serve about 80,000 people,” says Aaron Lemma, operations and outreach manager. “Our new program, Hope for Widows, helps make survival possible for women who have lost their husbands.” 

As an added bonus, Joyce Tannian, co-founder and executive director of WILK, also happens to be a well-known vocal artist.  She’ll join the group and perform the solo part on “Sigalagala,” a Lua spiritual praise song made popular by the Muungano National Choir of Kenya.

It’s not just a small world.  It’s a fragmented, fractured world.  CoroAllegro keeps hoping that holding up the unique musical voices of our variety can also reclaim what makes us all human together.

CoroAllegro presents “Around the World in Eighty Minutes,” Friday, April 28, 7:30 p.m., at Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Newark. Also, Saturday, April 29 at 7 p.m. at Concord Presbyterian Church, Wilmington. Tickets available at coroallegro.com. CoroAllegro is funded in part by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts.

Carl Burnam is a tenor with CoroAllegro.

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LAB Graduation

On March 25, we celebrated the graduation of our Livestock as a Business (LAB) groups in Orngosua. Four groups sang songs of thanksgiving for the training and loans they received from our successful program, which started in 2011. Topics discussed in the training programs included selecting the best breeds of livestock, treating sick animals, drought cycle management, pasture conservation, and choosing the best time to buy and sell. In total, the groups received four years of training before receiving their certificates. They also were given livestock prizes at the ceremony, which delighted the crowd of over 400.

Annual Water Committee Training

WILK borehole leaders came together in March for WILK’s annual Water Committee Training Seminar in Loitokitok. WILK staff together with officers from the County Water Ministry trained borehole leaders from all of our boreholes. Monitoring and regular trainings are key to our boreholes functioning continuously. Training covers topics such as generator maintenance and repair, borehole budgeting, tariff setting and collection, conflict resolution, financing large repairs, and leadership. Experienced leaders also teach inexperienced leaders, using lessons they’ve learned from managing their own water project, for example how to handle members who don’t pay on time, and how to collect money consistently to pay the operator their monthly salary, so that they don’t lose helpful and experienced workers due to late payment.

Empalakai Borehole Project

We broke ground on April 21 to begin the process of drilling and testing a new borehole in Empalakai. It took about five months for the project to be fully operational, as the 220 m. well also needed an appropriate pump and generator to be installed. Once the well construction was completed, water basins and cattle troughs were built. Estimates show that approximately 6,000 liters of water per minute can be pumped from the well. On September 19, people lined up with jugs to receive the clean, accessible water they so desperately needed. The opening ceremony will be in early 2023, when lives and incomes have recovered following the long drought of 2021 and 2022.

Hope for Widows

As soon as we discovered the problems that Maasai widows face due to marginalization, poverty, and land loss, we knew we had to help them. In May, we received a generous grant from the Raskob Foundation for our Hope for Widows pilot program. The grant gave us the opportunity to develop a plan to propel the widows toward independence and self-esteem.

Part of the program’s purpose is to teach small business skills that provide both short-term and long-term financial gains. Women received cash to jumpstart chosen businesses, from buying and reselling staple foods to producing beadwork items to sell to tourists, for daily income. At the graduation ceremony in November, widows received one male and two female goats to develop a herd for profitable sales and support larger family expenses, like school tuition. Forty women participated in the initial training, and 37 received the grants. We’re monitoring their journeys every week to support them so we can improve future iterations of the program.

Food Relief

Because of the devastation of the two-year-long drought in Kenya, we supplied food relief on three separate occasions. The arid conditions prevented grass and crop growth which, in turn, caused starvation for both people and livestock in many areas, including Kajiado County. From August through November, we provided the gift of hope and staple foods of maize, beans, and cooking fat to more than 2,000 families (approx. 14,000 people) suffering from the seemingly endless drought.

We began our efforts with our Food and School Campaign because many people were giving up food to send their children to school. We raised over $6,700 and distributed food to over 150 families at two different schools, which meant that fewer hungry students were attending their classes.

With our 2022 Drought Relief Campaign, we raised nearly $15,000 and fed more than 1,770 families in Imisigyio, Olepolos, Meshenani, Risa, and Namelok in October and November. Incidentally, Imisigyio was the first town in Kenya where we dug a borehole, so it was appropriate that 15 years later we went back to help the community when yet another severe drought hit the area.

On November 30, we partnered with the Nairobi Greater Lions Club to receive $10,000 to fund drought relief for 300 families in Noorio. Each family was provided with a month’s worth of food to help them survive the dire conditions caused by the drought. Nooriro is the location of our first new water project in 2023. We are building a strong relationship with the community.

Ilkisonko Borehole Project

On November 9, we began our most recent borehole project at the Ilkisonko Boys Secondary School. Students faced water rationing, and the surrounding community also had a non-functioning water supply, buying from water daily vendors hauling water with donkeys. We completed water testing from the 300 m. well on November 23. Our Giving Tuesday campaign raised over $15,000 to purchase and install a pump. Once we’ve built the infrastructure and installed the water pump and generator, the students and the neighboring community will have access to regular clean water.

Looking Ahead

As our Water is Life Kenya team looks forward this coming year to new projects with our partner organizations, the Lions Club of Greater Nairobi and US chapters of Engineers Without Borders, we will also carry forward important observations from this past year. We can’t overstate the importance of developing and managing pasture resources to ensure more drought resilience and reliable income from livestock keeping. Area leaders and LAB group members will document their experiences, propose solutions, and map a way forward.  With so many experienced and wise people we will surely come up with strategies to increase food supplies for livestock and the number of animals that survive the long droughts.

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