Project Status



Project Type:  Sand Dam

Regional Program: Southeastern Kenya WaSH Program

Impact: 400 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Mar 2025

Functionality Status:  Functional

Project Features


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Community Profile

Report Submitted by
Alex Koech, Communications Officer

Kisirani Community is located in a semi-arid region of Kenya that experiences erratic rainfall and severe droughts, leaving people without sufficient water to meet their daily needs. The 400 people who live here spend hours each day collecting water, meaning they have little time to do anything else.

Women wake up early in the morning to fetch water. Depending on where they live in the community, they walk up to three hours to reach either the faraway Mui River or a well and sand dam we implemented in another community. Then they must walk hours back home carrying water either by donkey, if they are fortunate enough to own one, or on their backs.

Most often, they choose the well since they know the water they are collecting is safer to drink, but it presents unique issues of its own when they arrive after their long, tiring journey. It is overcrowded and overutilized. They could spend hours waiting in line to collect just a few containers of water and not return home until the evening, or sadly, even wait hours in line for the water to run out, especially during the dry season.

"Since most community members carry water on their backs, it has led to back aches and leg pain, especially among the elderly women. They have to wake up that early. Walking to fetch water under the scorching sun is exacting 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. Irrigating crops is impossible because the available water is salty and insufficient, which has led to food insecurity and poor income levels. Students are also late to school, especially those who have to carry water to school every day," reported field officer Alex Koech.

"It is very exhausting to improve one's livelihood in this area because we are farmers who depend on water that's barely available, which consequently affects farming. Getting water to irrigate our crops and vegetables is impossible because the little available water is mostly used for cooking and drinking. Meals at home are also prepared late, and I end up on an empty stomach during most afternoons. My cattle and goats also provide poor yields due to exhaustion when walking to drink water from the borehole or shallow well," said 52-year-old farmer John Kitheka Munuve (seen above).

"I often skip school when there is no water at home because we are required to carry water every day to school during the drought periods. Like today, I have not gone to school because there was no water. I feel bad when I skip school because most of my friends are there, and I will end up failing my exams," said 10-year-old Mwendwa K., shown below, walking to collect water.

"Conducting personal hygiene at home is also hard because water is inadequate, and I have to go [to] school most times with my dirty uniform. I hope we will get a nearby water point that will enable me to always have clean water to drink and [be] present in school," Mwendwa said.

Installing a sand dam to provide water for people in this community will help so they do not have to waste their days walking to collect water. Hopefully, with more time available, there will be improvements in food and income security, and children will be able to attend school with hopes of a brighter future.

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 shallow 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


March, 2025: Kisirani Community Sand Dam Complete!

Kisirani 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 protected 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.

"Water will now be only a few minutes away from my home, and I won't need to walk several kilometers to the water kiosk. I will have enough water to drink, conduct hygiene at home, and even irrigate a kitchen garden," said 16-year-old Mary.

Mary.

"My parents will now have enough water to irrigate vegetables at the farm and sell the produce so that they can get money to support my family. My parents will be fetching water here easily and resume their daily duties like cultivating land. Although I have cleared school, I know this waterpoint will help my younger siblings focus in school because they will easily draw here and spend their time studying."

Sand Dam Construction

The members of Kaliluni Universal 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.

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.

Finally, we dismantled the vertical timber beams and left the dam to cure. This dam measures 43 meters long and 4 meters high and took 1140 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!

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.

19 people attended the training. During the soap-making session, it started raining. Participants were excited as it doesn't rain often in this region of Southeast Kenya. One person noted that they had missed the rain, so they had no reason to move indoors but wanted to stay outside to enjoy the rain showers which made everyone laugh.

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.

Participants built a tippy tap handwashing station.

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.

Elizabeth Mwanzia.

"Today’s training has almost touched everything on hygiene and sanitation. The members will be able to install the sanitation infrastructures needed, have hygienic practices in their homes like water treatment, cleaning the compound, constructing a tippy tap, a utensil rack and a latrine squat hole cover, thus reducing disease incidences," said 58-year-old farmer and secretary of the Water User Committee, Elizabeth Mwanzia.

Thank you for making all of this possible!




January, 2025: Exciting Progress in Kisirani Community, Thanks to You!

We’re thrilled to share that, thanks to your generous support, significant change is coming for John and the entire Kisirani 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 Kisirani 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

8 individual donor(s)