Project Status



Project Type:  Sand Dam

Regional Program: Southeastern Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 200 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Feb 2025

Functionality Status:  Functional

Project Features


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Community Profile

Report Submitted by
Alex Koech, Communications Officer

The 200 people of the Kasioni Community struggle to access sufficient water. Some must travel almost two miles by foot to wait in long lines, up to three hours at a time, at a community well and then make the journey back. Collecting water consumes their entire day and inhibits their ability to perform other daily tasks.

Field Officer Alex Koech shared, "Women and older children wake up early in the morning to fetch water from the river and carry it using their backs and donkeys (if a resident is lucky to own one). Children also help fetch water after their evening classes or during the holidays. Due to the long queues, they spend more than 3 hours at the water point. Walking to fetch water under the scorching sun is arduous and time-consuming, leaving the residents with little energy and time to engage in activities like land preparation, rearing cattle, or improving hygiene and sanitation."

Suppose residents cannot fetch water from the well that is far away. In that case, they must resort to using a scoop hole (representative photo below), which is often dry during the drought season and is unsafe for use, making people sick.

"Water from the scoop hole is insufficient and dries up during peak drought periods. The water is also open to contamination because animal excrete, dust, and debris find their way to this water point. The scoop hole is also located far away," Alex continued.

"Getting water is still a difficult task because of the steep terrain in our area. I have to carry water on my back, which causes a lot of back pain, especially since the shallow well is about two kilometers from my home. Due to the long journey and exhaustion, I have little energy and time to focus on farming or participate in hygiene and sanitation," said 32-year-old farmer Nduku Meuma, seen below.

"There is often no water at home, and my mother cannot prepare food on time. Sometimes, we only take a meal a day, which affects my health. Getting water to drink is also difficult because the waterpoint is located far away, and my mother spends most of the day fetching water," 9-year-old Mumo M. (seen below) shared.

Malnutrition has many causes, but as Mumo pointed out above, water scarcity contributes to families not having the time or resources to prepare enough food for their children.

"Malnourished children are subject to physical and cognitive delays, often impeding them from reaching their complete developmental potential with significant and lifelong health, social and economic implications." (The Impact Economist)

"I believe the construction of a waterpoint near my home will allow me to easily access water, and I will no longer experience any back pain. I will also have enough water to conduct hygiene and sanitation," Nduku concluded.

"I believe the setup of the project will ensure I always take my meals on time. My parents will also be able to irrigate their crops and provide food for all of us," Mumo said.

Installing this water point can enable people like Nduku to relieve the pain caused by hauling water long distances. Children like Mumo will no longer miss meals or school due to a lack of water, and everyone in this community will quench their thirst when needed instead of suffering without water to drink.

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


February, 2025: Kasioni Community Sand Dam Complete!

Kasioni 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.

"I will now have water nearby; therefore, I will not be going far to draw water for use at home. I will also no longer be spending my energy looking [for] water and use that time to study or help my parents at home. I will have time to focus on my studies when at home rather than using most of my time drawing water from distant water sources," shared 16-year-old Mueni.

Mueni at the newly completed sand dam.

Sand Dam Construction

The members of the Itinda 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 collected to begin construction.

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.

Constructing the timber skeleton.

Finally, we dismantled the vertical timber beams and left the dam to cure. This dam measures 39 meters long and 3 meters high and took 906 bags of cement.

The sand dam is complete.

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!

Community Education

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

As we’ve worked with this Self-Help Group in the past, we asked them about the subjects they needed refresher training on.

We asked 74-year-old William Manthi what the most interesting topic was. He shared, "Practicing hygiene and sanitation in our homesteads will be of high value since we now have more knowledge on hygiene. The PHAST action plan will be kept well for reference in the near future. We will also generate income through making the disinfectants."

Mr. Manthi.

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 the prevention of disease. Finally, we covered natural resource management as well as the operation and maintenance of the sand dam.

Training in session.

Field Officer Alex Koech shared, "I am hopeful that this group will take advantage of this newly installed water point to improve their livelihoods because they put a lot of effort [in] to ensure it was completed on time. They are planning to set up kitchen gardens and vegetable farms, and they have already set up a tree nursery."

Thank you for making all of this possible!




December, 2024: Exciting Progress in Kasioni Community!

We’re thrilled to share that, thanks to your generous support, significant change is coming for Nduku and the entire Kasioni Community. Construction has begun on the sand dam project, bringing them one step closer to having clean, reliable water.

But that's not all—during construction, we’re also providing vital health training. These sessions equip the community with essential hygiene practices, ensuring that the benefits of clean water extend to lasting health improvements.

We’re so grateful for your role in making this possible. Stay tuned for more updates—soon, we’ll be celebrating the arrival of safe water in the Kasioni Community!




Project Photos


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!


Contributors

Project Sponsor - Giving Tuesday Match
Accelerator Match
3 individual donor(s)