Location	Mahiga, Nyeri District, Central Province, Kenya
Date	2009-10
End User	1500 residents of Mahiga
Client	St. Joseph Mahiga Primary and Secondary School
Implementing Agency	Architecture for Humanity
Project Managers	Greg Elsner, Michael Jones
Design Firm	Dick Clark Architecture
Contractors	Boslika Building Contractors (general contractor), Chaga Electricals (mechanical contractor), Gumbi & Associates, Samuel Maina Ndlrague (Water Tank Contractor)
Environmental Consultant	Mazingira & Engineering Consultants
Funders	Architecture for Humanity; Nike; Nobelity Project; Willie and Annie Nelson
Cost	$84 150 USD
Area	4850 sq ft/437 sq m
Water Storage	30 000 liters

The whole community attended the opening of the rainwater court. Photo: Michael Jones/Architecture for Humanity

It started with a tree. Joseph Mutongu, a local conservationist, wanted to introduce a tree growing program at the school his son attended. The Mahiga Hope School is located in a dusty rural village in the Aberdare Mountain Range in central Kenya. Most families are subsistence farmers and at the time were in the midst of a four-year drought. The school needed water to allow the tree to grow, but more importantly to provide some clean drinking water to its students. Joseph took it upon himself to find a way to make it happen.

There were three options—to rely on the municipal waterline, which worked two weeks of the year; to drill an expensive bore well; or to develop an off-grid rainwater catchment system. A chance encounter with Turk and Christy Pipkin of the Nobelity Project created the opportunity of the third option. In 2008, Joseph, Turk and the school installed a simple gutter system on one of the school’s wooden structures. Rainwater was collected in a small tank and then they used an ultraviolet system to purify the water. For a few thousand dollars, the school suddenly had access to a small supply of water. The team then had a bolder idea, to provide water for every student all the way to the end of high school.

Greg Elsner arrived in Mahiga with a task. To design and build a multi-purpose basketball court that would collect up to 30 000 liters of water with ultraviolet purification, with a budget on par with a simple borehole well. Partnering with local architects Multiplex Systems, Greg and the team utilized local hand-cut stone (Mahiga means “stone”), a steel structure that mirrors traditional Kenyan art, and a two-panel metal roof to build the 4850 sq ft (436 sq m) structure.

Schematic perspective of the court. Image: Greg Elsner/ Architecture for Humanity

Going beyond a court, the architects designed a small stage for performances allowing the village to use it for community meetings, movie nights and weddings.

Like many institutional projects, this was more than a structure, it became a community catalyst. In less than 18 months student test scores jumped from the lowest to the highest in a district of 600 schools; enrollment in the high school tripled; the school had electricity for the first time; it installed a computer lab and a library and a two-story high school was built. Mahiga went from a derelict rural school to a model education campus.

When the court finally opened it had not rained in over three months. Over 1000 community members stood in the midday sun under a cluster of umbrellas to see the first basketball game played on the new court. As halftime approached, dark brooding clouds rolled across the skyline and by the time of the last shot the heavens opened up. Most building openings are dampened by a downpour, but in the case of the Mahiga rainwater court, it was the best way possible to celebrate. Joseph collected the first bowl of clean water to nourish a tree still growing in a corner of the school.

We finished it right when the rains came. Keep in mind it had not rained in the previous three months.

—Greg Elsner, design fellow