Published in July 2025

Continuing my series of reports from my recent visits to sand dams in Kenya built with the support of Sand Dams Worldwide, our local partner, the Africa Sand Dam Foundation (ASDF), and fantastic expedition volunteers (see last month’s Athiani SHG report here), this month I am delighted to share feedback from Woni wa Mutyanthii self-help group (SHG) about their sand dam project. It was great to see how their lives and land has changed 9 years from their sand dam construction, and what message they want to share with the volunteers who helped them.

Sarah Field (SDW Trustee) and I approached Woni wa Mutyanthii’s sand dam down a long, rough access track through very dry land, but as we neared the dam the whole picture changed, with abundant green vegetation along the river where sand (and of course water) has accumulated behind the dam.

The shallow well just upstream of the dam was surrounded by members of the community collecting several jerrycans of water. The lead SHG member greeting us was the vice-chair, Christina Mwelu, who started by describing life before the dam:

“I would need to get up early in the morning to go and look for water. I would have to walk to a river on the other side of the valley to get water from scoop holes. Sometimes there could be long queues because many people would visit the water point with donkeys.”

She described the journey taking two hours each way, with a wait of up to two hours for her turn. Sometimes the walk alone was dangerous "because you never know what other people’s intentions might be during that time”.

As we found elsewhere, she and her children often went without meals, suffered from illness caused by contaminated water, with inadequate water for washing. Collectively these problems meant that her children often missed school. In addition, they referred to pregnant women giving birth while on the journey to collect water.

All of this has been transformed since the dam matured, which it did within one year of construction. The dam has never run dry in that time (during a 3-year drought they did have to allow the well to recharge overnight and at one point they took a collective decision to restrict each household to 4 jerrycans of water per day). However, for the majority of the time they have unlimited access to water and grow vegetables with an emphasis on tomatoes, cabbage and kale.

The community were trained by ASDF how to make organic compost, which together with irrigation has increased farm yields. Each household now has at least one goat. With a tree nursery watered by the dam they have been able to grow trees for food, shade, medicine and firewood. Surplus produce is sold at the local market.

We asked Christina what made her most proud, to which her response was “The biggest moment of proudness is always the water. Because every time we see this water it is a solution, a testament to our hard work and the resilience we showed being able to bring it close to our homes”. She also described how they have been able to achieve most by coming together as a community and addressing their common challenges.

Their message for the volunteers who helped them build the dam in 2016?: “A lot of greetings to them. You greet them and you tell them that the community misses them. And tell them that that the dam they supported the community in construction supports them most with water”.

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