An initial visit to Embu was made by Fr. John from the mission office who met Bishop Paul of the Diocese of Embu earlier this year. Bishop Paul indicated the needs of his people namely to supply safe drinking water to about 600 people in a 2sq. km area including schools and community and the need of a building for children who are orphans. This will house around twenty children initially.
Bishop Paul has bought 2 acres of land which will be used for building this orphanage.
Our team of 35 consists of:
1. Medical Team – three doctors and six paramedics, physiotherapist and nurses - Lead by Dr.Josie Muscat from St.James Hospital
2. Engineering Team – four engineers and two technicians lead by Michael Attard ( and locally by engineers Marco Cremona and Paul Refalo who are assisting)
3. Social Team – teachers , counselling , university students, workers
4. Builders
This will be owned and run by the Catholic Diocese of Embu (Bishop Paul Kariuki Bishop of Embu - Kariuki Njiru Paul
We are also being assisted by ECOSPACE CONSULTANTS in Nairobi to coordinate the information required on this project and on a water purification plant which will be built by our engineers.
The building will be built by local workers. Also the water purification plant will be built together with local people in order that they participate and take ownership.
The project of the building will be starting during our stay and will be finished in a 2-3 month period.
Our team of engineers will complete the installation and commissioning of the water purification plant during our stay in Embu. The cost for the equipment will be in the range of 10,000€.
We already have an ultra filtration unit which will be used to block any bacteria and pathogens from the water and make it into safe potable water. We also need to install an Ultra Violet unit as a backup system in case of ultra filtration unit failure. Our plan is to have the system running on an off-grid Photo voltaic system for which we have already several promises for equipment donations.
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We have also signed an agreement with Malta University for the use of a water desalination unit which developed from research activity sponsored by the Malta Council of Science & Technology.
These are passive (no need of energy) desalination units which can be used in remote areas where there is water which however is not safe for drinking.
We are building one unit which we will take with us and we plan to teach local people how to build such units. This could develop into a business set up for these units to be sold to local communities in remote regions.
