Published in August 2026

We spoke to 70-year-old, Priscila Kingesi, chairlady of Utonyi wa Kasengela self-help group (SHG), based in Kenya. She shared her experiences of living with water scarcity in an arid area and how being a part of her community’s sand dam project has changed her life.

Priscila explains that her choice to join the SHG was because of the water challenges her community was facing. She describes the constant need to collect water throughout the day from the nearest river:

“After you had cooked your meals (with the water collected) in the evening, you would come here to start queuing and to wait to collect more water.”

This constant water collection was not an easy or quick task, with the river being hours away. Putting hours into the task of collecting water meant that other, equally as important activities, could not be tended to:

“To fetch the water from the main river, you would spend two hours going and two hours coming back and that is if you are going very fast. So, if you’re old and slow like me, it can take even longer.”

The impact on farming was severe before the sand dam, with Priscila typically having a very limited amount of water to irrigate her crops sufficiently:

“Usually you aim to try and prepare the farms early but in reality because you have to think of water first you cannot prepare the farms and land as you would like, and if you don’t get to the farm then you cannot prepare the land well and in time and that will affect your harvest.”

Since the sand dam was constructed with the support of Africa Sand Dam Foundation (Sand Dams Worldwide’s partner in southeast Kenya), life has been looking up, with Priscila observing major changes in her local environment and with her farming:

“One thing that has made me proud and happy since we have had this project is that we have trees at our homes. We have planted many trees and that keeps the homestead cool. We have enough time to do our farming, to look after our children and time for ourselves to go and join in the group activities in our community.”

Priscila Kingesi, chairlady of Utonyi wa Kasengela self-help group, southeast Kenya.

Another unexpected benefit of the sand dam project for Priscila has been her strengthened community bonds and the extra time she gets to spend with other ladies who are also benefiting from not having to spend hours every day fetching water:

“Before the sand dams, you would never see a group gathering like you see us here today. All these women would all have gone to collect water, and they would not have this time to gather, but now with our sand dams, we can!”

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