At SWECF Kenya, one of our main focuses is to try to bring accessible water supplies to rural communities across our region. One way in which we develop water resource projects is by constructing sand dams.
A sand dam is a reinforced rubble cement wall constructed across a seasonal sandy river. They are often quite simple in design, low cost and low maintenance making them perfect solutions to water scarcity for rural communities. They effectively capture rainwater during the rainy season and also assist in recharging groundwater. During the rainy season in many arid regions, water is lost due to rapid surface runoff and evapotranspiration. Sand dams are thus a very cost effective method of water conservation and storage in dryland environments.
This year we focused on fundraising for a sand dam project to support one of our local self-help groups (SHGs). This particular group are known as the Kavuvu SHG. We have worked with them on a number of projects previous to this one. They are a very active SHG who are always wiling to support SWECF in constructing such projects. This is often to the benefit of themselves due to the fact that the project will support them and the local community. This is why it is so important that we have strong community engagement, ensuring that the needs of the people are fulfilled whilst also allowing for active participation in such works.
We fundraised for a number of months throughout 2020, and even though we all experienced the Covid-19 Pandemic, the kindness and generosity of members of the public shined through. We were able to raise a significant amount of money to support us in procuring the materials and equipment that we needed in order to deliver the project before the advent of the rain season beginning in late October. Both Victor (Director of SWECF) and Charles (Chairman of SWECF) worked tirelessly on promoting the project, and ultimately raising enough funds for it to go ahead on time.
We are very proud to have achieved this during such difficult circumstances, and cannot thank those enough who supported us in achieving this goal. Without peoples support and generosity it would be very difficult for a small NGO such as ourselves to deliver many of these larger scale projects. We have a number of sand dam projects that we are planning for in the future and are always open to partnership and knowledge sharing. So please feel free to contact us if you would like to support or join any of our projects as a partner, and together we can change the lives of many communities!
See the photos below for the development and construction phase of the project over time until completion...
