Published in September 2025

Our partners in Mozambique, the Micaia Foundation, have been certified in sand dam siting, design and construction, completing capacity building training with Sand Dams Worldwide (SDW) and our strategic partner, the Africa Sand Dam Foundation (ASDF - based in southeast Kenya) so that they can continue to construct sand dams in Mozambique independently. In this story we share Micaia's journey to certification and reflections from members of the Micaia team on what this means to them and to our shared commitment to scaling up sand dams. 

SDW have ambitious plans to enable the construction of 1 million sand dams for 0.5 billion people by 2050, in turn helping millions of people living in drylands to access clean water and to improve their land and their livelihoods. A key element of our work towards achieving this scale is our certification scheme, a training scheme through which we are building skills and capacity of our local partners in the siting, design and construction of sand dams. Once certified, partners can then continue to scale sand dams independent of further external technical support, enabling more sand dams to be built across the world’s drylands. 

In Mozambique we have been working with our partners the Micaia Foundation to introduce sand dams to the Manica Province and, in collaboration with ASDF, supporting the Micaia team through the sand dam certification scheme. We are delighted to report that in 2025 the Micaia Foundation achieved certification and are now able to continue to construct sand dams independently. This is a major step forward in scaling up sand dams in Mozambique. 

Reflecting on the importance of sand dams in Mozambique and the impact of achieving certification, Emmanuel Mlambo, Sand Dam Construction Supervisor at Micaia (pictured below) said:

“The transfer of sand dam technology to Micaia has opened up more means for villages to get water and expanded opportunities for agriculture and having more food. While the community don’t get paid the ability to work together as a group goes a long way to self-training. The community have never worked together before, they have always worked as individuals but working together on the sand dam brings them together as a community and brings pride and ownership. I am excited going forward to provide alternative means of water abstraction for communities.” 

As part of the certification scheme members of the Micaia team attended residential training with ASDF in Kenya, learning about and gaining practical experience in sand dam siting, design, and construction. Returning to Mozambique, Micaia then worked together with ASDF's skilled artisans over the course of constructing a series of sand dams in the Manica province.

Through this process the Micaia team were able to learn and practice techniques for each stage of a sand dam project, from assessing and identifying suitable sites for sand dam construction, developing the designs and laying out the sand dam design on the ground, excavating the foundations, constructing the sand dam at each stage through to completion and curing of the dam. With each new dam Micaia took a greater role in leading the construction process and in 2025 it culminated in their certification. 

Here shows Micaia team members completing their residential training in Kenya with ASDF:

Ana Mlambo, Micaia Foundation’s Sand Dam Project Manager (pictured in the centre below) said: 

“Looking back on the time since I joined Micaia, we have always had a challenge with the participation of women during the dry season due to the time and the distance to collect water. The introduction of sand dams to Micaia’s work brings hope of finding ways to resolve problems that we have never been able to resolve. Certification makes us more independent as an organisation in finding solutions for communities with water challenges.”

Beyond the Micaia staff team themselves Ana shared how training in sand dam construction has brought additional benefits to other members of the community: “One of the community sand dam builders who worked on the first dam and now supports Emmanuel in constructing all dams has been elected as village secretary due to his work on the sand dam project. Before, many of these people were not recognised in their communities, but their contribution is now recognised and they are being seen as role models within their communities.”

In Mozambique we are now in the first year of our project to scale up sand dams in the Manica Province (with funding support from the Isle of Man Government) and Micaia are in the process of constructing their first sand dam independently. This dam is being constructed with the Muterero community in the Macosa district.

The certification scheme is a key element to enabling us to scale up sand dams across the world's drylands, allowing partners to continue the construction of sand dams in their country of operation whilst SDW can put more resources into supporting new partners and introducing sand dam technology to new countries and contexts. The Micaia Foundation are the second SDW partner to achieve certification, joining our Ethiopian partners Action for Development who completed certification in 2024.

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