Published in April 2026

Our 2026 Big Give Earth Raise campaign has now closed. If you missed it and would still like to make a donation towards our work, please click here!

On Wednesday 22nd April, Sand Dams Worldwide is took part in the Big Give’s 2026 Earth Raise campaign (formerly the Green Match Fund), which offered supporters of participating charities the opportunity to have their donations doubled for just seven days.

This year, we raised an incredible £22,304.97 (including match funding and GiftAid) to support a rural farming community in Dodoma, Tanzania, to build a sand dam and implement environmental protection measures, help improve their food and water security, safeguard the environment and ensure their long-term resilience to climate change.

We'd like to express our thanks to all donors and supporters for your generosity.

About Tanzania

In the Dodoma region of Tanzania, water insecurity is a widespread challenge. 47% of the population here lack access to safe drinking water, relying instead on water collected from rivers or from stagnant sources which is often dirty and unsafe for human consumption. As a result, outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid are common.

Climate change is only worsening the problem, contributing to increasingly erratic rainfall and more frequent droughts. This poses a significant threat to the livelihoods of small-scale farmers (around 75% of Tanzanians), who rely on rainfed agriculture for their livelihoods. Dodoma is one of the poorest and least developed regions of Tanzania, with 60% of households in the region living in poverty (compared to 47% nationally). As such, the need for reliable access to water for people living in Dodoma is critical.

About sand dams

Sand dams are a sustainable rainwater harvesting solution that store up to 40 million litres of water (which meets WHO drinking standards), providing people with year-round clean water. Unlike other water solutions, sand dams recharge groundwater levels and enable vegetation to regenerate. Combined with environmental protection measures, including tree planting, land degradation is reduced, increasing soil fertility so that farmers can grow more crops.

Watch how sand dams work here:

About our Earth Raise campaign 

We will support a community in Dodoma, Tanzania, to build a sand dam, providing them with year-round access to clean water for life whilst also helping to transform the surrounding environment by recharging groundwater levels. As more water infiltrates the soil, vegetation regenerates, in turn reducing soil erosion and improving soil fertility.

Community members will also be supported to implement a range of environmental protection measures, such as gabions and stone bunds, further enhancing the benefits of their sand dam and protecting the local environment.

Lastly, the community will be provided with Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) training, covering topics such as safe water storage, transportation, and handwashing hygiene. This will help local people to make use of the water from their sand dam to improve their health and hygiene, reducing the chance of sickness and disease.

"Before the sand dam, there was only water available in the river between January-April. There were big queues, sometimes there would even be fights, and it took all day to collect water. Normally we could only collect around 100 litres of water, which had to last my household (of 8 people) for up to 3 days. Now it just takes a few minutes, and we can collect as much water as we all need.”

Eveline Madiilo, Kingiti community member, Tanzania.

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Missed our Big Give campaign? Please donate what you can and help to empower vulnerable women and girls in drylands to transform their own lives with sand dams and clean water

Please select a donation amount (required)

£25 could provide a dryland farmer with drought-tolerant seeds, to grow a reliable source of fresh food for their children 

£50 could provide a roll of barbed wire to reinforce a sand dam, anchoring it to the bedrock 

£100 could provide a community with a wheelbarrow and 10 bags of cement, to help them construct their sand dam

Other

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