Kavililu Community A

Project Status

Project Type: Sand Dam

Regional Program: Southeastern Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 250 Served

Project Phase: In Service - Oct 2024

Functionality Status: Functional

Project Features

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Kavililu is tucked in a rural, semi-arid area of Kenya with little rain, so its 250 community members struggle to access sufficient water. They do not have their own water source, causing them to spend extraordinary amounts of physical effort to collect water from another community.

The faraway dug well does not produce sufficient water to satisfy the needs of everyone accessing it. People must wait in long lines after traveling extensive and exhausting distances, which leads to frequent quarrels.

"The steep terrain makes the current water point difficult to access. It is also located 5 kilometers (over 3 miles) away for most individuals. [This] leaves them exhausted after walking under the scorching sun in the area. Women have to wake up as early as 5:00 am to fetch water and return home in the afternoon. This consumes most of their time and energy; thus, [they] cannot fully participate in household chores, hygiene, herding livestock, or preparing their lands," shared field officer Alex Koech.

35-year-old community member Rhoda Kivya, seen collecting water below, agreed, "Tending to my children is already difficult, but I have to bear [the] burden and fetch water for drinking and preparing their meals. I get tired from walking to the river and coming back home, and most times, I am too exhausted to conduct household chores, let alone farming or preparing [the] land."

"Although I keep a kitchen garden, irrigating it is difficult because water is used sparingly. I cannot also take my goats to the water point because they could mix up with the other goats from neighbors and get lost; thus, they have to drink water that remains from washing or cleaning clothes. My life would be much easier if we had a nearby waterpoint which offers clean and sufficient water," concluded Rhoda.

"The school-going children spend most of their free time (evenings, weekends, and academic holidays) fetching water; thus, their studies and social life are negatively impacted," said Alex.

"I live with my grandmother, who is too old to fetch water from the distant dug well. Therefore I have to fetch water each evening and during weekends which is tiring and negatively affects my grades in school. Besides, I have [to] tend to other activities at home like cleaning and herding our goats and cattle. If we had a nearby waterpoint, fetching water would be easy. My grades would improve and enable admission to better tertiary schools, making my dream of being an engineer possible," said 16-year-old Francis K. (shown below).

But the distance to the water source is not the only issue. Unfortunately, after expending so much energy to collect water, people often suffer from water-related illnesses that steal more of their health and financial security.

"The dug well has a lid that is closed to prevent domestic animals and children from falling in. However, it is not protected enough to prevent water contamination because the water from the short rains enables dirt and feces to seep in. Most residents have been exposed to infections such as typhoid, amoeba, dysentery, and stomach upsets," said field officer Alex Koech.

Installing this water source will enable people like Rhoda and Francis to focus on completing essential tasks important for making progress instead of having all their time and energy consumed with finding and collecting water.

Helping to solve the water crisis in this community will take a multi-faceted system. It requires the collaboration of the sand dam and a hand-dug well. They will work together to create a sustainable water source that will serve this community for years to come.

The Proposed Solution, Determined Together...

At The Water Project, everyone has a part in conversations and solutions. We operate in transparency, believing it benefits everyone. We expect reliability from one another as well as our water solutions. Everyone involved makes this possible through hard work and dedication.

In a joint discovery process, community members determine their most advantageous water solution alongside our technical experts. Read more specifics about this solution on the What We're Building tab of this project page. Then, community members lend their support by collecting needed construction materials (sometimes for months ahead of time!), providing labor alongside our artisans, sheltering and feeding the builders, and supplying additional resources.

Water Access for Everyone

This water project is one piece in a large puzzle. In Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, we're working toward complete coverage of reliable, maintained water sources that guarantee public access now and in the future within a 30-minute round trip for each community, household, school, and health center. One day, we hope to report that this has been achieved!

Training on Health, Hygiene & More

With the community's input, we've identified topics where training will increase positive health outcomes at personal, household, and community levels. We'll coordinate with them to find the best training date. Some examples of what we train communities on are:

Improved hygiene, health, and sanitation habits
Safe water handling, storage & treatment
Disease prevention and proper handwashing
Income-generation
Community leadership, governance, & election of a water committee
Operation and maintenance of the water point

Project Updates

October, 2024: Kavililu Community Sand Dam Complete!

Kavililu Community, Kenya now has access to a new water source thanks to your donation! We constructed a sand dam on the riverbed, which will raise the water table and naturally filter water over time. We also built a new hand-dug well with a hand pump adjacent to the sand dam, providing the community with a safer method to draw the drinking water supplied by the dam.

Celebrating the completion of the sand dam!

"This waterpoint will be of great help to us because we will get enough water to use at home, irrigate our vegetables (like kale and cabbages), and no longer need to walk several kilometers searching for water from distant sources. We will also have adequate water for construction in our homes," shared 48-year-old Joseph Kaluki, a local farmer.

Mr. Joseph Kaluki.

"Moreover, my family will no longer be spending most of their time fetching water from the distant seasonal river because this water point is very close to my home," Mr. Kaluki continued.

Sand Dam Construction

The members of Faithful Sisters Self-Help Group collected all of the local materials, like rocks and sand, required to complete the dam. The collection of raw materials takes longer than the actual construction, lasting up to four months for a large sand dam. The group also dedicated their time to support our artisans with a tremendous amount of physical labor throughout the project.

Materials gathered for building the sand dam.

First, our team drew up siting and technical designs and presented them to the Water Resources Management Authority. We then sent a survey to the National Environment Management Authority for approval before beginning construction.

Once the plans were approved, we established a firm base for the sand dam wall. Usually, this requires the community to dig all the way down to the bedrock beneath the river channel. In the absence of good bedrock, we excavate to a depth at which the ground is compact enough to stop seepage.

Next, we heaped mortar (a mixture of sand, cement, and water) into the foundation, followed by rocks. We then used barbed wire and rebar to reinforce the mixture.

Once the foundation was complete, we built a timber skeleton to hold the structure above ground level. We repeated the process until reaching a sufficient height, width, and length.

Timber skeleton.

Finally, we dismantled the vertical timber beams and left the dam to cure. This dam measures 31 meters long and 3 meters high and took 840 bags of cement.

When the rains come, sand and silt will be carried down the dry riverbed and build up behind the dam wall. This reservoir of sand acts as a giant natural filter, and allows rainwater to seep into the ground and raise the water table. With this water, the surrounding landscape will become lush and fertile, and the well will provide drinking water to the community. It could take up to three years of rain for this sand dam to reach maximum capacity because in this region, sometimes it only rains once a year!

We worked with the Faithful Sisters Self-Help Group for this project. The members and their families contributed tremendous amounts of materials and physical labor.

New Knowledge

Our trainer worked with the field staff and community members to determine which topics the community could improve upon.

Soapmaking training.

This training was successful! We had 25 participants, and over the three days of training, they were an engaged group, eager to learn how to lead healthier lives.

We trained the group on various skills, including bookkeeping, financial management, project management, group dynamics, and governance. We conducted hygiene and sanitation training to teach skills like soap and detergent-making and improve habits such as handwashing.

We covered health problems in the community, good and bad hygiene habits, and disease prevention. Finally, we covered natural resource management as well as the operation and maintenance of the sand dam.

40-year-old Rhoda Matiti, a local farmer, shared what she gained from the training.

"Hygienic practices that have been taught throughout the training are things that we know but often ignore. They are the easiest ways of disease prevention, accompanied by the sanitation infrastructures that we should have. Water treatment, proper handling, and storage of both raw and cooked food, water source hygiene, [and] having a utensil rack and a functional latrine are some of the things that will truly prevent us from frequently becoming sick. We will be a light in our community, and through that, a change will be observed. We will also generate income through selling soap and latrine disinfectant. We will have a healthy and wealthy community," Ms. Matiti shared.

Rhoda (blue striped shirt) learning proper handwashing techniques.

Thank you for making all of this possible!

August, 2024: Kavililu Community Sand Dam Underway!

The lack of adequate water in the Kavililu Community costs people time, energy, and health every single day. Clean water scarcity contributes to community instability and diminishes individuals’ personal progress.

But thanks to your recent generosity, things will soon improve here. We are now working to install a reliable water point and improve hygiene standards. We look forward to sharing inspiring news in the near future!

Project Type

Sand dams are huge, impressive structures built into the riverbeds of seasonal rivers (rivers that disappear every year during dry seasons). Instead of holding back a reservoir of water like a traditional dam would, sand dams accumulate a reservoir of silt and sand. Once the rain comes, the sand will capture 1-3% of the river’s flow, allowing most of the water to pass over. Then, we construct shallow wells on the riverbank to provide water even when the river has dried up, thanks to new groundwater reserves. Learn more here!

Kavililu Community A

Project Status

Community Profile

Community Profile

Report Submitted by
Alex Koech, Communications Officer