Added on July 26, 2007

KAPTAGAT SANITATION BLOCK PROJECT - MAJI NA UFANISI

Community Service Director visits the site

A Progress Report by Rtn. Edward Kairu

On Friday 20th July, Nick Barton (Director Community Service) and Edward Kairu visited Kaptagat Sanitation Block, which is being funded by our Club. We had a meeting with the Kaptagat committee and then had a tour of the site, which is now nearly up to first floor level. The community is very excited about the construction and they have passed their thanks and gratitude to our Club for the finance of this project which is due to be completed by the end of September.

Progress Report, July 2007

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The project implementation commenced on May 20th, 2007 and is expected to end before September 19th 2007. The progress quite good so far is, and within the proposed implementation schedule. The month was generally rainy for the first three weeks causing reasonable delay. However, drastic weather changes have ushered in dry but cold atmosphere suitable for construction works.

The community has been very enthusiastic and supportive of this project. The group members have provided safe storage for construction materials and equipment and continue to actively participate in works that require unskilled manual labour. The construction site is near a busy road and for that reason, the community offer security to the site during non-working hours.

2.0 PLANNED ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

The following were the planned activities for the reporting period;

• Site marking and setting out
• Site clearing and leveling
• Foundation and column bases trenching
• Foundation walling to ground level
• Backfilling of foundation
• Slab casting and curing

So far, the level of achievement is outlined in the table below:

ACTIVITY STATUS

1. Setting out - Done
2. Bulk manual excavation to reduce levels - Done
3. Foundation strips and column footings excavations - Done
4. Foundation Blinding - Done
5. Column footing and stubs reinforcements - Complete
6. Foundation strips reinforcement - Complete
7. Foundation strips and column footing concrete - Complete
8. Foundation walling - Complete
9. Foundation column concreting - Done
10. Backfilling - Done
11. Hardcore filling - Done
12. Termite treatment - Done
13. DPM water proofing - Laid
14. Fabric mesh slab reinforcement - Fixed
15. Ground slab concreting - Done
16. Construction of the walkway ramp - On - going
17. Walling & columns - On - going

Construction of the walk way ramp and walling are going on as can be seen from the latest photographs at the end of this report. The masonry wall construction is at an advanced stage. Drainage and sewerage connections are also under construction.

3.0 CHALLENGES

3.1 Labour

• Trained masons are few in the community making it difficult to manage with local community members as per MnU requirement. This issue has at times been solved by getting skilled workers from other neighbouring communities.
• The number of unskilled workers is high, due to the high level of unemployment especially amongst the youth. This has been tackled through weekly rotation which in effect disrupts continuity of project activities. This has however been minimized through close supervision of the works

3.2 Theft

There have been several attempts to pull down the hoarding fence along Kaptagat Road. In a recent incident, the road embankment was disturbed in the event, and led to its collapse. This would have caused serious issues with the city authorities. The issue was overcome by rescheduling of works to reconstruct the embankment, followed by construction of the ramp to further stabilize the road base.

3.3 Construction Material Prices

Construction material prices have rapidly shot up most likely due to an increase in fuel prices and rising demand created by the fast growing construction sector. However with continuing value engineering, MnU is still optimistic that the project objectives will be delivered within the allocated budget.

| See news about RCN projects |

| Back to previous page |

| top |