Pioneering Sand Dams
A Sand Dam is a reinforced concrete wall built in a seasonal sandy river.
Walking on water: Sand Dams store water within sand; protecting it from evaporation and contamination.
Sand Dams are suited to many dryland environments. Drylands represent 40% of the Earth's surface.
Sand Dams are a tool that have many different uses.
Together with Africa Sand Dam Foundation we support organisations learn how to apply Sand Dam technology.
Excellent are promoting Sand Dam technology to researchers, policy makers and institutions to enable them to be built at a larger scale.
With ASDF, we are gathering more evidence on the benefits and impacts of Sand Dams.
Here at Excellent Development, we are passionate about pioneering Sand Dams - because we know what impact they have on people's lives.
That's why we're determined to ensure that Sand Dams become a key tool for combatting hunger and poverty in drylands worldwide.
Our journey to achieve this is in the early stages but the revolution is gaining momentum. We believe Sand Dams will transform millions of lives.
Sand Dams are suited to many parts of the world’s drylands. Drylands represent 40% of the Earth's surface, produce 44% of the world’s food and are home to 80% of the world’s poor.
We are pioneering Sand Dams in three main ways:
Supporting organisations
In partnership with the Africa Sand Dam Foundation (ASDF) we support other organisations to learn how to implement Sand Dams through a range of support ranging from funding, learning visits, technical resources and consultancy in planning and technical implementation.
Promoting Sand Dams
Excellent are promoting Sand Dam technology to policy makers, researchers, practitioners and institutions to enable sand dams to be built at a larger scale in more countries and continents. Currently, there are only around 2,000 Sand Dams in the world, with an estimated 120 currently being built per year - mostly in Kenya. The potential is for hundreds of thousands across the world’s drylands transforming the lives of millions of the world’s poor.
Gathering evidence on Sand Dams
Excellent and ASDF are working together to gather evidence of the benefits and impacts of Sand Dams. Research is also being carried out to learn more about exactly what areas of drylands Sand Dams are most suited to and the range of cost-benefits there will be.
Sand Dams are an affordable way to enable rural dryland communities to address hunger, poverty, conflict, climate change and land degradation and create green economic growth - all at the same time.
Simon Maddrell, Executive Director, Excellent Development
