Technology saves villagers as floods continue to ravage country

By Stephen Makabila

MAKUENI, KENYA: Kenya is a country of contrasts. The rainy seasons come with ravaging floods while biting food shortages are a common feature when the dry spell sets in.

Heavy downpours have pounded the country over the last one month, causing deaths, displacement of persons and destruction of property, prompting the Government to set aside Sh1.6 billion to contain floods and landslides.

And true to the contrast that is Kenya, as flood waters wreak havoc, rain waters flowing on the seasonal rivers of Makueni County and other parts of lower Eastern are being harvested not in water dams, but in close to 100 sand dams.

The water harvested in this occasionally dry-region is to be later utilised for domestic and agricultural use when the dry spell sets in.

 It sounds like an already practical answer to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s call for massive water harvesting to mitigate drought when he officially opened Parliament last Tuesday.

Sand dams are among the cheapest rainwater harvesting methods. Every rainy season, Makueni County and other parts of Ukambani store between two million and ten million litres of clean water, which is later made available to the local population.

Sand dams store water during the rainy season, when the volume in seasonal rivers is high. The captured water sinks in the sand after its speed has been reduced by the dam, and is stored and scooped from shallow wells in dry seasons for irrigation and domestic use.

“We owe whatever benefits we are deriving from this projects to the African Sand Dam Foundation (ASDF), a local NGO working with us here in Mbooni. Water shortage problems are a thing of the past,” says Pauline Wanza, a 38-year-old member of Kiteta Women Group, which has been utilising the waters of Thwake seasonal river all the year round due to the technology.

Wanza notes they are able to grow onions, sukumawiki, green pepper and tomatoes, which currently give them good income for the upkeep of their families.

“We help women in farming activities and marketing of their produce because we have realised the benefits. We also take part in excavating water for them come the dry season,” says Makau Maundu, a resident.

Marginalised people

 One of the ASDF founders, and its Development Director Andrew Musila Silu, says the Foundation works closely with marginalised rural communities in the region to increase access to clean water, health, food production and incomes.

Established in July 2010, the Foundation has helped over 107,846 people directly or indirectly.

   The Foundation’s beneficiaries, most of who are subsistence farmers and their families living in arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL), can now access clean drinking water.

Food production has also received a major boost through the use of sand dam technology. ASDF is a subsidiary of Excellent Development, a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Silu says the idea of starting the sand-dam projects was to help the local community that had suffered effects of drought for years.

“We sourced for funds and started off with Sh21 million. Apart from support from Excellent Development, we also receive funding assistance from the Kenya Commercial Bank Foundation, Arche-Nova, a Germany organisation, The Water Project of the United States and Just a Drop, a United Kingdom firm,” notes Silu.

He says before the kick-off of the project, they had to seek approval from the Ministry of Water, which also educated locals on the benefits of such a venture.

“So far, we have invested over Sh100 million in constructing 96 dams on seasonal rivers in the region with the support of our main donors. Constructed dams have a lifespan of one century,” adds Silu.

 Income-secure communities

 He says ASDF’s vision is to create food, water and income-secure communities in ASALs of Africa, by enabling communities to improve their environment sustainably to achieve food, water, income and improved health.

“Ownership of the projects by the communities is the key to the success of the Foundation’s approach. Their main objective is to promote a genuine improvement in people’s lives in the long-term and avoid aid dependence,” explains Silu.

Through ASDF, group members have dug 1,344 kilometres of terracing, enabling them to grow more food crops, and planted more than 830,000 trees. This has directly benefited 23,294 members and their families impacting 342,500 people across Kenya.

ASDF Executive Director Cornelius Kyalo Matheka notes self-help groups request for ASDF support and actively lead the project identification and implementation in their community, taking decisions based on their own needs, doing most of the work themselves and ultimately taking ownership of the projects. This, he further explains, ensures sustainability in the long-term.

 “Without essential soil and water conservation, the degradation of their environment traps communities in the vicious cycle of drought, poverty and famine. The Foundation enables farmers to gain access to clean water close to their homes,” notes Matheka.

He says ASDF’s impact on communities can be seen in women and children, who carry the major burden of collecting water, and they benefit due to decreased distances to water collection points and improved health and school attendance.

 “Children now go to school clean and well-fed, and as a result, there are fewer cases of water-borne sickness. Around 1,099 people have directly benefited from our work and it is estimated that around 106,747 people living in the neighbouring areas will also benefit indirectly from the project outputs, notably from improved water availability, food production, and improvement in the local economy,” adds Matheka.